Carnivores: Aardwolf African Wild Cat African Wild Dog Banded Mongoose Bat Eared Fox Black-backed Jackal Brown Hyena Cape Clawless Otter Cape Fox Caracal Cheetah Civet Dhole Large Spotted Genet Golden Jackal Honey badger Jaguar Leopard African Lion Asiatic Lion Sand Cat Serval Side Striped Jackal Snow Leopard Spotted Hyena Striped Hyena Suricate (Meercat) Tiger White Tailed Mongoose Yellow Mongoose
Photo © Ken Watkins
The aardwolf is similar in appearance to a small hyena. It weighs around 9Kg, and is around 90cm in length, standing around 50cm high at the shoulder - a similar size to a jackal. Like a spotted hyena, the front shoulders are higher than the rump. The aardwolf has a tawny-brown hairy body with several dark vertical stripes. The lower parts of the legs are black, and the upper legs are tawny-brown with black bands.
The aardwolf has a dark muzzle, and large pointed ears. The aardwolf has a mane of erectible hair on the back and neck which it raises when it feels threatened. The aardwolf has long canine teeth, normal incisors and peg-like molars.
The Aardwolf is a very specialised predator, with a diet that is made up almost exclusively of termites. In the southern population, the main food is the nocturnal termites Trinervitermes trinervoides. During the winter though, these termites do not emerge from their mounds, so the aardwolf switches to the diurnal harvester termites, Hodotermes mossambicus. The termites are located by smell and hearing when they are out of their mounds and the aardwolf then uses its long sticky tongue to lick them up from the ground. An aardwolf can eat up to 300,000 termites in a single night. They occasionally eat other insects, birds or mice.
The Aardwolf does not kill livestock - its molar teeth are not suited to a carnivorous diet. Its canines are used purely for defence if they are unable to scare their enemy away.
The aardwolf is normally nocturnal, but in the southern african summer, it is active during the day when its main prey sources are active.
When threatened, they raise the mane of hair on their neck and back to make themselves look a lot bigger. They also have a very loud growl and bark for an animal of its size, which coupled with the raised mane helps scare off enemies.
The Aardwolf does not kill livestock, but because of its resemblence to a hyena it is often assumed to be a threat to livestock and is therefore unfairly persecuted. They also fall victims to farmers who hunt jackals with packs of dogs as the dogs will also attack and kill the aardwolf.
The aardwolf is a good digger and either digs its own burrow or modifies one left behind by another species. It has 4 digits on each of its hind paws and 5 on each of its front paws. These digits are equipped with strong claws which are used when digging.
The aardwolf is generally solitary except when mating or raising young.
The aardwolf uses scent marks to mark its territory. The home range varies in size depending on the availability of termites, and in areas with high levels of termites the home range may be around 1-2Km2. In Southern Africa, a home range has been calculated to include around 3000 termite mounds (around 165 million termites).
Apart from humans, the main threats to the aardwolf come from spotted hyenas, lions, leopards and pythons.
The Aardwolf has a gestation period of around 90 days, after which it gives birth to between 2 and 4 young. The young are born with their eyes open but are helpless. They remain in the den for the first 6-8 weeks of their life, with both parents sharing the job of raising them. By the time they are 3-4 months old they are weaned and start foraging with their parents. By 9 months old they are fully grown, but still remain with their parents until they are around 12-15 months old and they then leave before their parents next litter are ready to leave the den.
The aardwolf generally prefers open grassy plains but is found in a wide variety of habitats - almost anywhere that it is able to find suitable quantities of harvester termites for it to feed on.
There are two distinct aardwolf populations - one in Southern Africa and one in Eastern Africa.
The Southern population is found in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Southern Angola.
The Eastern population is found in Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, Eritrea and Eastern Ethiopia.
Photo © Ken Watkins
© Predator Conservation Trust.
