When it comes to curious and weird animals, few are as fascinating as the aardvark and the anteater. Both are uniquely adapted to a diet of ants and termites, yet they are separated by continents, habitats, and even evolutionary paths.
What's the difference between the aardvark and the anteater?
They both may have long snouts and tongues that slurp up termites by the thousands, but aardvarks and anteaters are very different species and have little else in common. Here we take a look at how these strange looking creatures differ.
- For starters, aardvarks are primitive ungulates (a hoofed animal) whereas anteaters aren't.
- Both animals live above ground and use their claws to dig out burrows and get into ant and termite nests. However, the anteater's claws are sharp and up to 4 inches long, while the aardvark's front claws are blunter because they are ungulates.
- Size-wise the aardvark is the bigger, weighing between 40-65kg - while anteaters are about a half to a third lighter, weighing 22-40kg.
- The aardvark is native to Sub-Saharan Africa, while the anteater is found in Central and South America.
- Their coats are different too. The aardvark has pig-like skin and coarse hair, while the anteater is covered in dense fur with bushy tails.
- When it comes to being active, aardvarks are night owls (nocturnal) whereas anteaters are active during the day (diurnal).
- The aardvark's natural predators are lions, spotted hyenas, pythons and humans, while anteaters make tasty prey for jaguars and pumas.
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