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Meet the rare and fascinating Aardwolf

I photographed this Aardwolf at Duba plains in northern Okavango Delta, Botswana, a seldom seen species and one I have not seen since (although I know there are places where you can see them regularly). While they look fairly mean they are in fact insectivores, you can read more below...

The aardwolf (Proteles cristata) is a small, insectivorous mammal, native to East and Southern Africa. Its name means "earth wolf" in Afrikaans and Dutch. It is also called "maanhaar jackal" (Afrikaans for "mane jackal") or civet hyena, based on the secretions from their anal glands, reminiscent of civets. 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. It eats insects, mainly termites – one aardwolf can eat about 250,000 termites during a single night, using its long, sticky tongue to capture them. The aardwolf lives in the scrublands of eastern and southern Africa – open lands covered with stunted trees and shrubs. It is nocturnal, resting in burrows during the day and emerging at night to seek food. Its diet consists mainly of termites and insect larvae. Thank you Wikipedia

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