During the cold winter months, they may shift to the more heavily pigmented (and therefore, more diurnally active) Hodotermes species. They feed mainly on nasute harvester termites of the Trinervitermes genus, though the specific species differs according to specific regions. As a result, aardwolves have come to rely on termite species that forage in large numbers on the soil surface. Unlike the previously evolved termite specialists, aardwolves lack the powerful claws and digging equipment necessary to break open termite mounts to unearth their prey. This in turn allowed these ancestors to slide into an ecological niche with significantly reduced levels of competition by changing their dietary approach.
Speculative biologists suggest that perhaps it was the aardwolf’s ancestor’s exceptional capacity to digest decaying food that imparted at least a partial tolerance to the otherwise toxic excretions of the termites. (For the sake of clarity, it is important to note that while many mammals feed on termites or ants on occasion, myrmecophagous mammals are entirely dependent upon them.) What makes the aardwolf so fascinating is that its origin is considered to be relatively recent, with the oldest member of its family tracing back to around between 10 and 20 million years ago (unlike pangolins or aardvarks, whose ancestors have been around for some 60 million years). Myrmecophagy (eating termites or ants) is surprisingly rare in the mammal kingdom and it is a trait typically associated with more ‘primitive’ species such as the pangolin or aardvark. Most evolutionary biologists point to one particular trait responsible for the aardwolf’s survival – the ability to digest the toxic terpene excretions of termites. Compared to its bone-crunching cousins, the aardwolf is fine-featured and delicate Fussy eating is not always a bad thing One by one, the dog-like hyenas vanished, barring a scattered few: the ancestors of the aardwolf, now the sole survivor of an evolutionary dead-end. What followed, presumably, was an evolutionary war of competition, with the canids emerging victorious. Climate changes resulted in a gradual decline in dog-like hyenas and canid species began to cross the Bering land bridge (between present-day Russia and Alaska) into Eurasia. Then, for the hyenas at least, catastrophe stuck sometime between the 5 to 7-million-year mark. By 15 million years ago, 30 different species of hyenas roamed early Earth, most of which were dog-like hyenas not dissimilar to jackals. From there, evolution began to follow two different specializations, producing a dog-like hyena lineage that chased down smaller prey and a bone-crushing lineage of hyenas capable of capitalizing on the kills of the large felid species. Devoid of canine competition at the time, the early hyenas provided a particularly neat example of convergent evolution – steadily developing longer legs and pointed jaws like those of the canid species in North America. The ancestral origins of all four species can be traced back to a civet-like hyena species known as Plioviverrops that thrived throughout Eurasia around 20-22 million years ago. Of all the hyena species, the aardwolf looks most like a striped hyena, though this is where the similarities end. The aardwolf ( Proteles cristata) is a member of the Hyaenidae family, along with the spotted hyena ( Crocuta Crocuta), the brown hyena ( Parahyaena brunnea) and the striped hyena ( Hyaena hyaena). For out of all the hyena species, the aardwolf is unique: the last of the dog-like hyenas to survive an evolutionary purge by virtue of its somewhat unusual diet. Unlike their larger, spotted cousins, aardwolves are, for the most part, extremely shy and often elusive – few visitors are fortunate enough to spend any time with them and even fewer genuinely appreciate just how lucky they are to do so. This is the Aardwolf.Īfrica’s aardwolf is one of the continent’s most underappreciated yet charming characters. Yet one of the most highly specialized carnivores on the planet wanders the grasslands, deserts, and savannas of the African continent, largely unnoticed and unrecognized. The word carnivore in Africa instantly conjures images of long canines and sharp claws – powerful predators like lions or leopards, capable of rending flesh from bone or enthusiastic painted wolves coursing after their equally speedy prey or perhaps even the sinuous athleticism of Madagascar’s fossa.
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