I can remember being in the third grade and running home to watch my favorite TV show. I grabbed the remote and sat down and flipped straight to PBS. Arthur and his friends were doing crazy things and encouraged me to read. I never really knew the answer to one question though. Until one day when Arthur entered a spelling bee. "I know how to spell this word, it's what I am." He then sang and danced in order to remember how to spell the word: A-A-R-D-V-A-R-K!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOcyzddfvvM

Other than what I learned on Arthur, I realized I didn't know a whole lot about aardvarks and decided it would be my new blog topic.

Although Arthur lived in Elwood City, a real aardvark (Orycteropus afer) would be found in Africa. If were walking around in the daytime in Africa, you probably still wouldn't see one since they are nocturnal. They look a lot like an anteater, but have no relation. The aardvark is named the way it is because the Dutch though it looked like a pig and the dutch work varken means pig and aarde means ground/earth: "ground pig".

Aardvarks eat ants and termites and use their powerful claws to ruin colonies in order to get to the insects.It then uses its long straw like tongue to suck the insects into its mouth. It also uses its claws to dig complicated and intricate burrows. Aardvarks live alone so only a mother and her young will live in the same burrow. Its main defense is its claws. If attacked in its burrow it will turn around in its burrow and attack the attacker or if it can escape it will close off the burrow; burying the attacker. If an aardvark is attacked outside of its burrow it will roll over onto its back and use all four claws and slash open the attackers face.

A baby aardvark is able to find food and fend for itself by 16 weeks but doesn't leave the mother until the next mating season. They will live anywhere where they can dig and there are insects available.









FUN FACT:

When Marvel comics were coming up for the idea for Spiderman they started out with Aardvarkman but decided having a superhero with such a long tongue would seem to be more of a villain. They then opted for Spiderman.











http://www.awf.org/