This fun fact Friday, we take a closer look at the aardvark!🧐 These nocturnal insect-eaters have astonishing appetites and can devour a jaw-dropping 50,000 ants in a single night! 🐜 But hold on, there's more! 🌍 The name "aardvark" originates from a South African term meaning "earth pig". 🐘 Despite their resemblance to pigs, aardvarks share ancestry with elephants and golden moles. 💪 Aardvarks use their robust front claws to excavate holes at a rapid rate, digging up to 2 feet in just 15 sec

Aardvark dad joke anyone..? Aardvarks can eat up to 50,000 insects in a single night, and although almost all of their diet is made up of ants or termites, they do actually eat a single type of fruit. The aardvark cucumber is completely reliant of aardvarks to spread and re-bury their seeds, and it’s the only cucumber species to fruit underground. This plant is thought to be why aardvarks are the only mammal which feed on ants and termites that have retained functional cheek teeth. The cucumbers

Happy #NationalAardvarkWeek. Fun fact: aardvarks are able to fully close their nostrils to keep out insects and dirt when they’re digging for food in ants nests or termite mounds. They also fold their ears against their bodies to protect them from the flying dirt. | Bronx Zoo