The aardvark (scientific name Orycteropus afer) is a medium-sized burrowing anteater native to Africa. It's a member of the clade Afrotheria, along with its close relatives the tree shrews, hyrax, terecs, elephants and manatees. Yes that's right motherfuckers, aardvarks are closely related to both elephants and sea cows.
The etymology of the word "aardvark" is Afrikaans, as if we care about that. It means "earth pig". If you're wondering how the fuck that distinguishes it from a regular pig, which also lives on the Earth, then you're not fucking alone. Afrikaans is a fucking stupid language.
Here is a picture of an aardvark.
All aardvarks look pretty much like that. If you see something that doesn't look like that it's probably not an aardvark.
Aardvarks mostly eat ants. They also eat one fruit: the aardvark cucumber. That's what it's called.
In African folklore, the aardvark is (so wikipedia tells us) much admired because of its diligent quest for food and its fearless response to soldier ants. That's what it says. The fact that a three-to-four foot long, hundred-pound mammal specialised for eating ants is not afraid of ants is apparently considered to be particularly respectable in African folklore. Remember, these guys live on the same continent as the fucking lion.
That's all you need to know about aardvarks. Next!
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