See text Aardvarks (/ˈɑːrdvɑːrk/ ARD-vark; Orycteropus afer) are medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammals native to Africa.

Nocturnal feeders, aardvarks subsist on ants and termites by using their sharp claws and powerful legs to dig the insects out of their hills.

[13] Based on his study of fossils, Bryan Patterson has concluded that early relatives of the aardvark appeared in Africa around the end of the Paleocene.

[13] The mysterious Pleistocene Plesiorycteropus from Madagascar was originally thought to be a tubulidentate that was descended from ancestors that entered the island during the Eocene.

However, a number of subtle anatomical differences coupled with recent molecular evidence now lead researchers to believe that Plesiorycteropus is a relative of golden moles and tenrecs that achieved an aardvark-like appearance and ecological niche through convergent evolution.

[20] The aardvark has seventeen poorly defined subspecies listed:[4] The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica also mentions O. a. capensis or Cape ant-bear from South Africa.

[22] A contributing characteristic to the burrow digging capabilities of aardvarks is an endosteal tissue called compacted coarse cancellous bone (CCCB).

The stress and strain resistance provided by CCCB allows aardvarks to create their burrows, ultimately leading to a favourable environment for plants and a variety of animals.

The greatly elongated head is set on a short, thick neck, and the end of the snout bears a disc, which houses the nostrils.

[22] The aardvark's stomach has a muscular pyloric area that acts as a gizzard to grind swallowed food up, thereby rendering chewing unnecessary.

[5] Its salivary glands are highly developed and almost completely ring the neck;[16] their output is what causes the tongue to maintain its tackiness.

[16] Genetically speaking, the aardvark is a living fossil, as its chromosomes are highly conserved, reflecting much of the early eutherian arrangement before the divergence of the major modern taxa.

[31] Aardvarks are found in sub-Saharan Africa, where suitable habitat (savannas, grasslands, woodlands and bushland) and food (i.e., ants and termites) is available.

[32] The only major habitat that they are not present in is swamp forest, as the high water table precludes digging to a sufficient depth.

[16] Its keen hearing warns it of predators: lions, leopards, cheetahs, African wild dogs, hyenas, and pythons.

[6] Aardvarks can dig fast or run in zigzag fashion to elude enemies, but if all else fails, they will strike with their claws, tail and shoulders, sometimes flipping onto their backs lying motionless except to lash out with all four feet.

[34] In winter, when ant numbers declined, aardvarks relied more on termites, often feeding on epigeal mounds coinciding with the presence of alates, possibly to meet their nutritional needs.

[29] In fact, the cucumber and the aardvark have a symbiotic relationship as they eat the subterranean fruit, then defecate the seeds near their burrows, which then grow rapidly due to the loose soil and fertile nature of the area.

[11][29] An aardvark emerges from its burrow in the late afternoon or shortly after sunset, and forages over a considerable home range encompassing 10 to 30 kilometres (6.2 to 18.6 mi).

[35] During a foraging period, they will stop to dig a V-shaped trench with their forefeet and then sniff it profusely as a means to explore their location.

[32] When successful, the aardvark's long (up to 30 centimetres (12 in))[2] tongue licks up the insects; the termites' biting, or the ants' stinging attacks are rendered futile by the tough skin.

When these insects move, they can form columns 10–40 metres (33–131 ft) long and these tend to provide easy pickings with little effort exerted by the aardvark.

[5] Aardvarks shift their circadian rhythms to more diurnal activity patterns in response to a reduced food supply.

As they are vacated, then they are inhabited by smaller animals like the African wild dog, ant-eating chat, Nycteris thebaica and warthogs.

[27] Aardvarks pair only during the breeding season; after a gestation period of seven months,[5] one cub weighing around 1.7–1.9 kilograms (3.7–4.2 lb)[16] is born during May–July.

[40] Aardvarks that survive droughts can take long periods of time to regain health and optimal thermoregulatory physiology, reducing the reproductive potential of the species.

Hausa magicians make a charm from the heart, skin, forehead, and nails of the aardvark, which they then proceed to pound together with the root of a certain tree.

Wrapped in a piece of skin and worn on the chest, the charm is said to give the owner the ability to pass through walls or roofs at night.

[41] Also, some tribes, such as the Margbetu, Ayanda, and Logo,[5] will use aardvark teeth to make bracelets, which are regarded as good luck charms.

The ancient Egyptian god Set is usually depicted with the head of an unidentified animal, whose similarity to an aardvark has been noted in scholarship.