Aardvark

The Aardvark is a native animal of Africa and is called the ant bear as well as Aardvark.

The aardvark is built like a small pig, and has coarse hairs scattered over his body.

He is stocky with an arched back and long legs Aardvarks have just four toes on their front feet. The back feet have five toes.

Their ears seem entirely too big for their heads being very long and strange looking, while they have very elongated snouts and long noses with a very thick tail that gets extremely thin at the end.

Aardvark

All in all the Aardvark is a very unique looking animal.

The aardvark has a very long tongue that has a keen sense of smell.

Aardvarks weigh about 100 pounds and can be as long as 4 feet. They are a pale yellow gray which is usually dirtied by the red soil they root in.

The coat of hair is very thin, but the aardvark has very hard thick skin which protects him.

In fact it protects him so well from bites and stings, that sometimes when they have completed ripping apart an ants nest and eating their fill, they will lie down and sleep in the nest which is pouring with ants.

Aardvarks are nocturnal animals and nearly always feed and exist alone. They eat ants and termites.

Aardvarks climb awkwardly out of their burrows at about dark and begin to snuffle over the ground.

When they find a scent of ants, they will dig with their very powerful front legs and claws, keeping the huge ears perked up to listen for predators to them.

An aardvark will eat up to fifty THOUSAND ants in one night, taking its long tongue and lapping them up like water.

An aardvark will make a burrow in which to live that can be as long as 100 feet in length or more. They have many entrances and exits and the aardvark changes them regularly.

Only females and their young will share a burrow and if the mother is attacked in the burrowl she will drop dirt down in front of the babies to protect them, and turn to fight the intruder.

Aardvarks can live to be about twenty years old.Find out more about the Aardvark over at Wikipedia »