Mammals
Birds
Amphibians
Reptiles
Meet our charismatic aardvarks
With large ears, a long snout and an even longer tongue, aardvarks are easy to recognise! Whilst compared to pigs and anteaters, aardvarks are the only living species in their family. Aardvarks are colourblind and don’t have the best eyesight. Instead, they use their impressive hearing, powerful sense of smell and shovel-shaped claws to find and dig up insects and their long, sticky tongue to catch and eat them. You can find our aardvarks, Tafari and Nacho, living alongside the meerkats in Discovery Desert.
Animal facts
Key facts about the aardvark
I’m found in Africa
Aardvarks can be found across Africa’s grasslands, savannas and rainforests.
My favourite food is insects
Aardvarks are insectivorous and eat termites and ants.
My name means ‘earth pig’ in Afrikaans
The aardvark’s impressive nose and underground burrowing gave it its name.
50,000
termites eaten a day
30cm
tongue length
20+ years
average lifespan
Learn more about Tafari from keeper, Leila
A special relationship between aardvark and cucumber
Whilst aardvarks are mostly insectivorous, they also enjoy eating a certain kind of fruit – the ‘aardvark cucumber’ (Cucumis humifructus). The cucumbers are unable to disperse their seeds themselves, so the fruit relies on the aardvarks digging them up and eating them to spread and replant the seeds!
Help us care for our aardvarks