Information is taken from the game and may change or differ over time. Last updated .
Unlocked at Accreditation Tier 1
Statistics
The aardvark (or Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized insectivore that lives throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
They have pink-grey skin with sparse, coarse hair, large slender ears, and an elongated head that ends in a pig-like snout.
Males are slightly larger than females, but both sexes are generally between 105cm and 130cm long, have a tail between 60cm and 70cm, and weigh between 40kg and 65kg.
- Aardvarks only have four toes on their front legs, possibly adapted to form 'shovel-like' feet for digging. Their nostrils are lined with coarse hair and can be closed completely to keep soil out when they are digging.
- Female aardvarks have a white tail tip, believed to make it easier for their cub to follow them in the darkness of their burrows, and during foraging.
- The tongue of the aardvark is 30cm long, sticky and is used to track through tunnels of ant and termite hills to collect many insects at once.
- Abandoned aardvark burrows are important habitats for other animals – mostly warthogs and hyenas.
- Aardvarks have a symbiotic relationship with a species called the 'aardvark cucumber', a plant which grows underground and depends entirely on the aardvark for the dispersal of its seeds. The cucumber is the only non-insect food that the aardvark eats.
Habitat
Minimum habitat requirements
Planned population
Space
Barrier
Terrain
Environment
Preferred group ranges
Social
With the exception of a mother and her cub, aardvarks are solitary in nature. They only interact when mating or competing over mates.
Dog Ball
Melon Feeder
Natural Termite Mound
Slow Feeder
Termite Mound
Cardboard Box
Herb Scent Marker
Rubbing Pad
Rubbing Pad Bark
Small Ball
Small Ice BallThriving relationships
0iNo compatible species
Neutral relationships
2i
Release
Release requirements
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Maternal Family Group
Solitary Male
Conservation
The aardvark is not endangered, but it is vulnerable in certain areas. They need a large foraging range in the wild to allow them to acquire enough food, so they are affected by land use change like the expansion of farmland and urban areas. Sometimes they are killed by farmers who want to prevent them from digging up their land, and they are also affected by pesticides that kill the insects they feed on. Ant and termite populations are also negatively affected by more frequent, climate change-induced droughts.
Aardvarks are protected in national parks and nature reserves.
Research
| Level | Unlocks | Bonus | Research gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thriving Requirement 1: Animal Burrow, at least 2 | ||
| 2 | Aardvark Fact Sheet | ||
| 3 | Thriving Requirement 2: at least 5 objects or plants with the Bushes tag | ||
| 4 | Thriving Requirement 3: Food Grade 2 | Fertility (+15%) | Before this level: an Observation Network (Observation Platform) in Great Rift Valley Reserve and this species released in Great Rift Valley Reserve |
| 5 | Thriving Requirement 4: Natural Termite Mound, at least 2 | ||
| 6 | Thriving Requirement 5: Heavy Soil terrain | Fertility (+30%) |
Conservation topics
Life
Reproduction
Lifecycle
Body
66 cm
66 cm 52.5 kg 52.5 kgBreeding
During the mating season, male aardvarks will track females in their burrows by scent and stay with them for a few days. If and when she is receptive, he will mate with her before leaving the burrow. Males may mate with several females during the mating season.
The female is pregnant for 7 months before giving birth to 1 cub, which will remain with its mother for 6 months - learning how to forage and dig burrows - before leaving and digging its own.
They become sexually mature at 2 years old.
