Aardvark

• It can dig almost a metre of tunnel in barely 15 seconds with its powerful front claws.
• It can eat as many as 50,000 ants and termites in a single night's foraging, found by smell and hooked out with a tongue up to 30 cm long.
• It lives in savannah, grassland, woodland and scrub across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
• comportamientoIt is strictly nocturnal and may cover several kilometres a night following the trails of ant and termite colonies.
• comportamientoIt can dig a complete burrow in a few minutes with its powerful claws, and other species regularly take over the tunnels it abandons.
• anatomíaIts teeth have no enamel and grow continuously throughout its life, a very unusual trait among placental mammals.
• alimentaciónIt can eat tens of thousands of ants and termites in a single night, using its long sticky tongue to take them from inside the nest tunnels.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat & environment

Savannah, grassland, woodland and scrub across much of sub-Saharan Africa, avoiding rocky ground

Birth weight

~1.8 kg at birth

Size at birth

Born naked and hairless, with its eyes open

Sexual maturity

2 years

Gestation / incubation

~7 months (225 days)

Litter / clutch size

1 young per litter (occasionally 2)

Lifespan in captivity

Documented record of up to 29.8 years in captivity

Sources consulted: AnAge (genomics.senescence.info); SANBI; Nature Table (WordPress); African Wildlife Foundation; A-Z Animals; Animal Diversity Web; Animalia.bio; AnimalHub

Best time: All year round, but only at night; it is easily detected by its large burrows and by termite mounds torn open with its claws.