Animal Fact Sheet
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Aardwolf
Proteles cristatus
What does it look like?
Aardwolves' coats are light buff color with
an orange tint, striped with dark brown. Their fur is long and coarse,
with bushy tails. A mane, or crest, along their backs which becomes
erect when frightened.
- They stand about 20 inches at the shoulder
- They reach 2.5 feet long
- Weight 20 to 30 pounds
- Members of the hyena family, aardwolves are more closely related
to civets, mongooses and meerkats than dogs or wolves
- Aardwolf, which means "earthwolf" in Afrikaans, is
so named because these animals live in under-ground burrows
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| Where
in the world?
Aardwolves are broken into 2 distinct populations. The southern
population is spread over south Africa as far south as Angola, Zambia
and Mozambique. The northern population is in east Africa as far
north as southeast Egypt. They are commonly found in open sandy
plains or brush country.
What are some behaviors?
Unlike the larger hyena which have only four toes on their forefeet,
aardwolves have five toes, and for this reason, are sometimes placed
in a separate family, Protelidae. Loners who forage separately,
these animals can squirt an effluvium from anal glands, as effective
a defense as skunks'.
What about offspring?
A pair of aardwolves temporarily occupies territories with their
most recent offspring. Territories are marked by both males and
females with smear from anal glands. Serious fights occur if an
intruder is caught inside a territory, especially during mating
season. Gestation is between 90-110 days.
In the southern part of their range, in November
and December, females give birth to single litters of two to four
cubs, born blind and helpless. Cubs spend six to eight weeks in
the den. At about three months, they begin foraging with a parent,
and by four months, forage on their own. |
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What does it eat?
Aardwolves truly are specialists. They are nocturnal insectivores
with highly specialized diets of harvester termites. These termites
come out in late afternoon to evening because they are unable to
tolerate light. During that time, aardwolves collect these termites
with their long, sticky, well-adapted tongue. In fact, their cheek
teeth are reduced to few simple pegs since they are not needed to
catch the termites. Don't be mistaken however, they have relatively
sharp canines that can certainly inflict damage. An aardwolf may
consume up to 200,000 termites in a single night. Hence, they are
very important in controlling these insects. During lean seasons,
aardwolves feed on other insects and larvae dug out of the ground
with the help of their large ears and acute hearing.
Is it threatened
or endangered?
No, not at this time, however, it has been wrongly accused of eating
lambs. |
