02/05/2026
Yesterday was and we’re spreading some love for these misunderstood and often misjudged creatures with an attractive aardwolf from our Cape Leopard Trust Piketberg survey! 🐾
The aardwolf (𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴) belongs to the Hyaenidae family, along with the brown, spotted and striped hyenas. It is a medium-sized mammal native to Southern and Eastern Africa. They are mainly nocturnal (active at night) but may be seen during early morning and late afternoon and on overcast days.
They do not actively hunt other animals, but instead are obligate insectivores, meaning they completely rely on insects for food. Aardwolf feed almost exclusively on harvester termites, and a single individual can consume up to 300 000 termites (with a combined weight of 1.2kg!) in one night! One study estimated that a single aardwolf may consume 105 MILLION termites a year, amounting to 420kg!! They only occur in habitat where their main termite food source is present.
There is no real evidence for the claim that aardwolf kills and eats lambs or chickens. Their teeth are not adapted to eat meat, and studies of their gut and faecal contents showed no presence of livestock remains. The misconception probably resulted from mistaken identity with hyaenas or jackals, and if an aardwolf is seen eating while hunched over a dead carcass, it is actually eating larvae and beetles.
The name aardwolf directly translates as ‘earth wolf’, because it lives in underground burrows. Although they are capable of digging, they mainly use and modify burrows dug by other species like springhares and aardvarks. The aardwolf is also sometimes called ‘maanhaar jakkals’ (maned jackal) due to its ability raise a mane when threatened to appear bigger and more menacing.
ℹInfo sources: Stuarts’ Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa; The Red List of Mammals of South Africa, Eswatini and Lesotho
