What is an aardvark?
The Aardvark is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is sometimes called “antbear”, “anteater”. The name comes from the Afrikaans/Dutch for “earth pig”, because early settlers from Europe thought it resembled a domesticated pig. However, the aardvark is not closely related to the pig; rather, it is the sole recent representative of the obscure mammalian order Tubulidentata, in which it is usually considered to form a single variable species of the genus Orycteropus, coextensive with the family Orycteropodidae. Nor is the aardvark closely related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics and a superficial resemblance. The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant shrews, along with the sirenians, hyraxes, tenrecs and elephants.
This animal is known to most people because aardvark is the first word in many dictionaries. But do you know what an aardvark actually is? The aardvark is a strange creature indeed. It’s about the size of a hog, with a long, pig-like snout and thick, gray-brown hair. It has long ears like a rabbit, sharp claws like a raccoon, an
An aardvark in an mammal that may also be known as a Cape anteater or an African ant bear. The word “aardvark” means “earth pig” and aardvarks look a lot like pigs, though they are not related to pigs in any way. Aardvarks eat termites or “white ants.” They have long, tubular heads and piglike snouts. They have short legs that are armed with stout claws. The claws are used for digging burrows and defense. In order to defend themselves, aardvarks roll over on their backs.
