Have You Herd About Aardwolf?

Welcome back, Herders to season 7 and our two years of Have You Herd About Animals? What a wild time it has been and this podcast has grown so much and we have created so many changes over the years because of you all. We all thank you so much. Love, Tyler and Sam.

The aardwolf (Proteles cristatus[3]) is an insectivorous species of hyena, native to East and Southern Africa. Its name means "earth-wolf" in Afrikaans and Dutch.[4][5] It is also called the maanhaar-jackal[6][7] (Afrikaans for "mane-jackal"), termite-eating hyena[8] and civet hyena, based on its habit of secreting substances from its anal gland, a characteristic shared with the African civet.[9]

Unlike many of its relatives in the order Carnivora, the aardwolf does not hunt large animals. It eats insects and their larvae,[10] mainly termites; one aardwolf can lap up as many as 300,000 termites during a single night[11] using its long, sticky tongue. The aardwolf's tongue has adapted to be tough enough to withstand the strong bite of termites.[12]

The aardwolf lives in the shrublands of eastern and southern Africa – open lands covered with stunted trees and shrubs. It is nocturnal, resting in burrows during the day and emerging at night to seek food.