Elroy Huisenga, age 13, of Wall Lake, Iowa, for his question:
What is an aardvark?
At first glance, this fellow looks like somebody left over from the age of the dinosaurs. Squatted on the ground, his fat body forms a hump. One end tapers towards a long snout. The other end tapers towards a long, pointed tail. From his nose to the tip of his tail, the strange fellow measures about six feet.
A closer look reveals a pair of donkey‑type ears and eyes peeping from under heavy, drooping lids. This closer look also reveals that Mr. Aardvark is no relative of the dinosaurs. For his skin is not a lizard skin. It is a thick, pinkish brown leather, bearing a spattering of stubby hairs. The aardvark is a warm blooded mammal.
His name puts him at the head of the alphabetical list of animals. He appears on page one of the dictionary. This strange name was given to him by the Dutch settlers of South Africa. There, they found him in his native home. They noticed that he burrows in the ground and when molested he grunts, kicks and squeals like a pig. So they named him aardvark which in their language means earth‑pig.
The aardvark is a shy fellow and seldom soon roaming around, even in his native Africa. His dinner hour is at dusk and he spends a good deal of his time burrowing below ground. The strange animal is an anteater. Though ants form his main diet, he eats large quantities of grubs, beetles and other insects he finds in the ground.
The favorite supermarket of the aardvark is a termite hill. In Africa, these termite hills are built up into towers and castles often taller than a man. Mr. Aardvark’s day is complete when he comes upon one of these termite castles.
He starts work with his front paws which are equipped with strong claws. His powerful hands tear down the termite castle and throw the inhabitants into panic. They rush hither and thither to repair the damage. The aardvark lashes out his long, sticky tongue, catching them by the dozen. From time to time he curl his tongue back into his..,,a;,puth. Each mouthful of termites is chewed by 20 grinding teeth, for the aardvark has no front biting teeth.
Because of his teeth; the aardvark is not classed with the pangolin and other anteaters. For most anteaters have no teeth at all. The aardvark has the honor of having a family all to himself. The name of this order is Tubulidentata which means tube‑teeth. His scientific name is Orycteropus, a fancy word meaning digger‑foot.
Every aardvark is brought up as an only child. For Mama has but one baby at a time. For this reason, aardvarks were never plentiful. At one times they were hunted for their skins and became very scarce indeed. In the Tubulidentata order there are two close cousin. The Ethiopian aardvark of northeast Africa has a little loss hair than the Cape aardvark. Otherwise it is hard to tell them apart.