The Aardwolf

An aardwolf, by Mella Panzella. (Ms. Panzella, if you have any objections to your photo being used here, please [email] me.)

It looks like a miniature striped hyena, but it's not. The aardwolf (the name means "earth-wolf" in Afrikaans) is so highly adapted to eating termites that its teeth, except for its canines, have dwindled to mere pegs incapable of chewing meat. Its fangs are still well-developed, and it uses them to defend its territory from other aardwolves.

Aardwolves live entirely on two species of termites. One of these species goes dormant during the cooler winter, so they then switch to the other species for sustenance. This very restricted diet means that the species has a very retricted range -- it can only live where these two species of termites do.

An aardwolf doesn't have powerful claws or forelegs like an anteater or aardvark, so it can't dig out the termites. It has to stand beside or on top of the mound to lick up what it can.

Aardwolves live in burrows in the earth, and come out only at night.

An aardwolf in threat posture, its mane raised.

An aardwolf can raise the mane of black hair on its back when frightened or angry to look much larger, and supposedly can even roar to frighten off an attacker.

Eating insects has caused aardwolves to develop a social structure unique among hyenas. Their food doesn't have to be brought down by a pack, and it cannot be shared, so aardwolves have never evolved the clan system of spotted and striped hyenas. Instead, each aardwolf wanders through its range of termite mounds at night, searching for food (it can lick up 30,000 termites in a single night).

Because of this, aardwolves are more or less monogamous, with one male and one female having a permanent relationship. The female may sneak off to mate with a more attractive male, then return to her mate. If she's too blatant about her unfaithfulness, however, she risks the male's abandoning her and her cubs.

Scientists have thought that the ancestors of aardwolves must have separated from other hyaenids a very long time ago, because of their unique anatomy. However, a recent study of hyaenid genetics suggests that the aardwolf lineage is more recent -- only 10.6 million years old.