What Do Aardvarks Eat? All About The Aardvark’s Diet

The cub will stay with its mother until she gives birth to her next cub, and is capable of having its own cubs at two years old. “Our initial findings suggest that climate change will increase habitat fragmentation and limit gene flow for aardvarks, particularly where precipitation is expected to decrease and temperature increase,” Epps said. “With aridity expected to increase in southern-most Africa under most climate change scenarios, the need for further research is clear.” Closely related individuals were detected as far as 44 km apart, and individuals less than 55 km were more genetically similar. Thus, they found aardvarks may disperse up to 55 km from where they are born.

Aardvarks are mostly absent in Namibia, Ghana, Madagascar, and the Ivory Coast. Insects are swallowed whole, and their stomach as some kind of gizzard which has the function of grinding all the consumed insects.

The aardvark’s coat is thin, and the animal’s primary protection is its tough skin. Aardvark, (Orycteropus afer), stocky African mammal found south of the Sahara Desert in savanna and semiarid areas. The name aardvark—Afrikaans for “earth pig”—refers to its piglike face and burrowing habits. The aardvark weighs up to 65 kg (145 pounds) and measures up to 2.2 metres (7.2 feet) long, including the heavy, 70-cm (28-inch) tail. The face is narrow with an elongated snout, very reduced eyes, and ears up to 24 cm (9.5 inches) long. The aardvark’s coat is scant and yellowish gray; the face and tail tip may be whitish.

They give birth to a single baby, called a “cub,” within their burrow. The aardvark cub is very wrinkly, with floppy ears when it is first born. After three weeks it will grow into the folds and be able to hold its ears upright.

Some are also poached for their teeth, which are believed to prevent illness and are worn as good luck charms by some tribes. Because of the aardvark’s elusive nature, little is known about its mating habits in the wild. Aardvarks are well adapted to feeding on termites and other insects and have several physical adaptations that help protect them from being bitten.

People rarely see aardvarks, mostly because they’re solitary, nocturnal, and spend so much time underground. They also lack the reflective tissue that makes the eyes of some animals glow in the dark. Epps learned to recognize aardvark tracks and poop (which they Doeat.top Current trends in animal diets bury) when working as post-doctoral researcher nearly 20 years ago in Tanzania. In 2016, during a sabbatical, he returned to Africa for six weeks to see if he could spot aardvark digging signs, track them through the bush and find their buried droppings.