David Onus o, age 101 of Phoenix, Ariz., for his question:

Is an aardvark a animal?

Yes, indeed. What's more, the aardvark sometimes heads the whole animal parade, a is the first animal to be listed in the dictionary and he is the very first animal to appear, with his picture in your gift encyclopedia. With such a strange name, you would expect to find a rather strange looking animal. And this is so. He was named by the Dutch settlers o South Africa arid in their language aardvark means earth pig.

The aardvark, however, is in no way related to the pig   though he has a piggy snow and sometimes grunts and squeals. The earth part of his name is quite suitable, for this animal can burrow as fast as a man can dig. What's more, he uses his strong front paws to tear apart the hard, earth dwellings of the. African termites.

Because of his fondness for ants and termites, the aardvark is called an anteater, though he is not related to the pangolin anteater or to the giant anteater of South America. In fact, he has no other relatives in the world at all. The aardvark of South Africa, however, has shorter ears and a longer tail than the aardvark who lives in Ethiopia.

The head of the aardvark is very thin and his piggy snout is very long. He has a pair of large, sleepy eyes which peep out from under drooping eyelids. His head is crowned with a pair of mule like ears. The chubby body is thick and humped high in the middle and his legs are short and stubby. The tail is long and tapered to a point. Altogether, this amazing animal may measure six feet and tip the scales at 100 pounds. His tapering tail is bare, but the rest of his body is covered with bristly hairs.

This anteater feeds only on ants and termites and does his hunting at night. His long snout smells out the tall, hard termite castles and Mr, Aardvark follows his nose, Then he uses his strong front claws to rip apart the hard walls of dried mud. The termites rush hither and thither to defend their home from disaster. Then out comes the aardvarkts sticky, whip like tongue, maybe a foot long. It lashes to and fro, gathering up the scuttling insects by the dozen., When the tongue is well coated with termites, the aardvark draws it back into his mouth and swallows.

This strange anteater lives in lion country, and his chubby body makes a tender meal for the King of Beasts. He tries to burrow fast enough to escape, but when this fails, the aardvark defends himself by rolling on his back and kicking with his strong claws. The natives also find aardvark meat good to eat, Since Mrs, Aardvark has but one baby at a time, these animals are rather rare and, sad to say, may become extinct,.