Aardvark

Related Topics:
Aardvark :: Aardvarks

The Aardvark (Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized mammal native to Africa. The name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch for "earth pig" (aarde earth, varken pig), because early settlers from Europe thought it resembled a pig. However, the Aardvark is not closely related to pigs.

Classification

The Aardvark is the only surviving member of the family Orycteropodidae and of the order Tubulidentata. The Aardvark was originally placed in the same genus as the South American anteaters because of superficial similarities which, it is now known, are the result of convergent evolution, not common ancestry. For the same reason, Aardvarks bear a striking first-glance resemblance to the marsupial bandicoots, bilbies, and numbats of Australasia, which are not placental mammals at all. The Aardvark is now placed in its own genus, Orycteropus.

The oldest known Tubulidentata fossils have been found in Kenya and date to the early Miocene. Although the relationships of Tubulidentata are unknown, they are probably ungulates. They spread to Europe and southern Asia during the later Miocene and early Pliocene periods. Two other genera of the family Orycteropodidae are known besides the extant one: Leptorycteropus and Myorycteropus. A genus from Madagascar may be related to them, called Plesiorycteropus.

In the past, several individual species of Aardvark were named, however current knowledge indicates that there is only one species, Orycteropus afer, with several subspecies; 18 have been listed but most are regarded as invalid.

Description

The most distinctive charactristic of the Tubulidentata is (as the name implies) their teeth which, instead of having a pulp cavity, have lots of thin tubes of dentine, each containing pulp and held together by cementum. The teeth have no enamel coating and are worn away and regrow continuously. The Aardvark is born with conventional incisors and canines at the front of the jaw, but these fall out and are not replaced. In adults, the only teeth are the molars at the back of the jaw.

The Aardvark is only vaguely pig-like; the body is stout with an arched back; the limbs are of moderate length. The front feet have lost the pollex (or 'thumb')—resulting in four toes—but the rear feet have all five toes. Each toe bears a large, robust nail which is somewhat flattened and shovel-like, and appears to be intermediate between a claw and a hoof. The ears are disproportionately long and the tail very thick at the base with a gradual taper. The greatly elongated head is set on a short, thick neck, and at the end of the snout is a disk in which the nostrils open. The mouth is typical of species that feed on termites: small and tubular. The Aardvark has a long, thin, protrusible tongue and elaborate structures supporting a keen sense of smell.

Weight is typically between 40 and 65 kg; length is usually between 1 and 1.3 m. The Aardvark is a pale yellowish gray in color, often stained reddish-brown by soil. The coat is thin and the animal's primary protection is its tough skin; the Aardvark has been known to sleep in a recently excavated ant nest, so well does it protect them.

Behavior

The Aardvark is nocturnal and a solitary creature that feeds almost exclusively on ants and termites; the only fruit eaten by aardvarks is the aardvark cucumber. An Aardvark emerges from its burrow in the late afternoon or shortly after sunset, and forages over a considerable home range, swinging its long nose from side to side to pick up the scent of food. When a concentration of ants or termites is found, the Aardvark digs into it with its powerful front legs, keeping its long ears upright to listen for predators, and takes up an astonishing number of insects with its long, sticky tongue—as many as 50,000 in one night has been recorded. It is an exceptionally fast digger, but otherwise moves rather slowly.

Aside from digging out ants and termites, the Aardvark also excavates burrows to live in: temporary sites scattered around the home range as refuges, and the main burrow which is used for breeding. Main burrows can be deep and extensive, have several entrances, and can be as much as 13 meters long. The Aardvark changes the layout of its home burrow regularly, and from time to time moves on and makes a new one. Only mothers and young share burrows.

After a gestation period of 7 months, a single cub weighing around 2 kg is born, and is able to leave the burrow to accompany its mother after only two weeks. At six months of age it is digging its own burrows, but it will often remain with the mother until the next mating season. The Aardvarks can grow older than 20 years in captivity.

Habitat

The Aardvark is distributed across most of sub-Saharan Africa, and although killed by humans both for its flesh and for its teeth (which are used as decorations), does not appear to be threatened.

Trivia

Aardvark is usually considered the first noun in the English dictionary.
Arthur Read is a fictional aardvark (despite looking more like a mouse) with human-like traits. He is a book and television character created by Marc Brown.
Cerebus the Aardvark is a comic aardvark created by Canadian artist Dave Sim.
Jason Webley, the musician, has a song about an aardvark.

Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana) is the only American liberal arts university, outside of zoological institutes, with a comprehensive concentration in the study of aardvarks.

Similar animals

The anteaters of South America.
Pangolins are also called "scaly anteaters".
The Numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus), a marsupial.
Echidnas, a family of monotremes, are still sometimes called "spiny anteaters".
Armadillos are omnivorous but ants form a large part of their diet.

in the "Pink Panther" cartoon there was a character named the "Blue Aardvark". The Pink Panther represented innocence and un-fortune, The Blue Aardvark was unkind and ill-polite...

Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana) is the only American College to offer a comprehensive concentration in the study of the aardvark.

External links

The Biology of the Aardvark (Orycteropus afer)

References

Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
Aardvarks: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation

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