MAMMAL MONDAY #48

MAMMAL MONDAY #48!

Grab your safari hats and night vision goggles and let’s head off to Africa today to meet a relative of the hyena! These bug loving mammals may look like their relatives, but they are very different! Are you ready? Let’s go!

MEET THE AARDWOLF!

   Range/Habitat: Eastern South Africa/ desert-scrub

   Diet: Insectivore: termites, insects

   Length/Weight: 26”/ 20 lbs

   Conservation Status: common

Fun Facts:

• Aardwolves have longer front legs than back legs.
• They have 3 stripes on each side.
• Aardwolves have a crest of fur down their backs. They puff the fur up when they are threatened to look bigger.
• Aardwolves are nocturnal (active at night) and solitary.
• They have sticky tongues that they use to eat insects!
• Aardwolves can eat up to 200,000 termites a night!

Aardwolves are really cool. Unlike their hyena cousins who eat carrion or kill their prey, these guys eat bugs and lots of them! If you could pick, which would you be a carnivore or an insectivore?