{"id":9375,"date":"2019-04-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/the-aardvark\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T09:54:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T07:54:48","slug":"the-aardvark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/kruger-national-park-news\/kruger-national-park-animals-guide\/the-aardvark\/","title":{"rendered":"The Aardvark"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Aardvark, loosely translated as \u201cEarth Pig\u201d, is a very rare find in the Kruger National Park<\/a>.\u00a0 This unusual animal is also known as \u201cAfrican Ant Bear\u201d or Cape Anteater.<\/p>\n

Aardvarks are generally the size of a small pig and from head to rump they are anything from 100 to 140 centimetres excluding the tail.\u00a0 Their tails are about 50 cm long and believe it or not, their tongues can be up to 30 centimetres long!!\u00a0 Their front legs are muscular and they have long nails specially designed for digging.<\/p>\n

The Aardvark is an extremely shy, mainly nocturnal animal.\u00a0 These animals have an incredible sense of smell which they use to find termites.\u00a0 Once termites are sniffed out, they dig till they get to the nest. \u00a0\u00a0They then use their long sticky tongues to catch the termites, which they will swallow whole.\u00a0 The Aardvark has a digestive system much like a bird, the stomach designed to break up insects. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Digestive enzymes in the saliva assist with digestion.\u00a0\u00a0 The only teeth they have are 20 tubular teeth at the back of the jaw, and these never stop growing.<\/p>\n

In the dry season, Aardvark\u2019s eat mainly ants, while in the wet season their main diet will be termites.\u00a0 These unusual animals forage in a zigzag fashion across the veld, smelling out columns of termites. \u00a0If water is around, Aardvarks will drink water, but they are not dependant on water, as they can live with just the moisture they find in their diet.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Once they find a favourite eating mound they will mark it by secreting from the groin glands. Since the Aardvark is a nocturnal animal, they usually return to their burrows before dawn.<\/p>\n

In the dry season, Aardvark\u2019s eat mainly ants, while in the wet season their main diet will be termites.\u00a0 These unusual animals forage in a zigzag fashion across the veld, smelling out columns of termites. \u00a0If water is around, Aardvarks will drink water, but they are not dependant on water, as they can live with just the moisture they find in their diet.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Once they find a favourite eating mound they will mark it by secreting from the groin glands. Since the Aardvark is a nocturnal animal, they usually return to their burrows before dawn.<\/p>\n

Aardvarks use their muscular front legs to dig out their dwellings.\u00a0 Some of these dwellings are up to 6 meters below ground and can have as many as 8 entrances.\u00a0 The Aardvarks burrows are wide enough to fit themselves, thus making it impossible for their predators, Lion or Hyena to fit into.\u00a0 Aardvark males are solitary animals and will only be seen with females during the mating season.\u00a0\u00a0 The females, on the other hand, are usually seen with one or two offspring, usually of different ages.<\/p>\n

Once the Aardvark moves from a burrow, its home is utilised by either other mammals, reptiles or even birds.\u00a0 Another animal that benefits from the Aardvark is the Aardwolf, which will actually feed in the wake of the Aardvark.\u00a0 The Aardwolf does not have the digging capabilities of the Aardvark, so it waits for the Aardvark to do the digging and once the Aardvark moves on the Aardwolf will feed at the same spot.<\/p>\n

The Aardvark has not been studied extensively because of its shy nature and remains mysterious to humans.\u00a0 Your best chances of seeing one of these mysterious creatures is an early morning or night game drive and even then your chances are slim.\u00a0 Saviour the moment if you do see an Aardvark, as your chances of seeing two in one lifetime are extremely rare.<\/p>\n

Fancy your chances of seeing an Aardvark during your next Kruger National Park safari?<\/h3>\n

Book your Kruger tour with us today.<\/h2>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aardvark, loosely translated as \u201cEarth Pig\u201d, is a very rare find in the Kruger National Park.\u00a0 This unusual animal is also known as \u201cAfrican Ant Bear\u201d or Cape Anteater. Aardvarks are generally the size of a small pig and from head to rump they are anything from 100 to 140 centimetres excluding the tail.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kruger-animal-tour-guide"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}