The Aardwolf is a small, insectivorous mammal, native to East Africa and Southern Africa. The aardwolf is in the same family as the hyenas. Unlike many of its relatives in the order Carnivora, the aardwolf does not hunt large animals, or even eat meat on a regular basis; instead it eats insects, mainly termites – one aardwolf can eat about 250,000 termites during a single night by using its long, sticky tongue to capture them. The aardwolf lives in the scrublands, these are open lands covered with stunted trees and shrubs. The aardwolf is nocturnal, resting in burrows during the day and emerging at night to seek food. They have often been mistaken for solitary animals. In fact, they live as monogamous pairs with their young. The territory is marked by both sexes, as they both have developed anal glands from which they extrude a black substance that is smeared on rocks or grass stalks in 5-millimetre (0.20 in) long streaks. photo credits: Greg Hume, Animals Animals, Phil Richardson
