Aardvark vs. Anteater: Similarities And Differences Explained

Ever wondered about the differences between the aardvark vs. anteater? Aardvarks and anteaters are mammals native to various regions in Africa, South and Central America. This article will explore the differences between them. For instance, an earth pig has a long snout, prehensile tail, and thin coat, while an anteater has a bushy tail, long snout, and long coat. 

Differences Between Aardvarks and Anteaters

When you think of an animal that starts with the letter A, your mind immediately jumps to these unique creatures. 

Most Africans call aardvark an earth pig because of its burrowing habits. Its scientific name is Orycteropus afer. Aardvark is closely related to elephant shrews, golden moles, and elephants. Meanwhile, the anteaters are members of the suborder Vermilingua, which consists of four species: silky anteaters, northern and southern tamanduas, and lesser anteaters.

Let’s explore their other distinctive features in the sections below, or for a deeper dive into each, click through to our articles on:

• Aardvark Facts
• Anteater Facts.

1. Size

The first difference between aardvarks and anteaters is their size. Aardvarks are larger than the different species of anteaters. An aardvark weighs between 40 and 82 kg and reaches 1 - 1.58 meters long, while the anteater species are smaller.

The giant anteater weighs a maximum of 39 kg and grows up to 1.2 meters long. The lesser anteater has a maximum weight of 8 kg and a length of 2.9 feet. 

In contrast, the silky anteater is the smallest anteater species, weighing an average of 266 grams. The fourth species of anteater is the northern tamandua, which has a maximum weight of 7 kg and a length of 0.77 meters.

2. Physical Appearance 

Aardvarks have a unique appearance that distinguishes them from anteaters. They are vaguely pig-like. Aardvarks have short necks connected to their large body. Their distinct features are their long snouts and tube-shaped ears. These mammals can fold and close their ears when they are digging burrows. They can also move each ear independently. 

Aardvarks have long snouts holding narrow nostrils, which also close when necessary. They have long hind legs and shorter front legs. The hind legs have five toes, while the front legs have four. Each toe has an enormous, flattened claw. 

Their thick skin is almost hairless and yellowish-gray. Hair is scattered sparsely along their heads, necks, and tails. People often refer to them as pigs. They have short, muscular cone-shaped tails like pigs’ tails.

Anteaters look slightly similar to aardvarks, but they are two separate species. Giant anteaters have long snouts measuring up to 45 cm narrower than aardvarks' elongated snouts. All anteaters look different. 

A giant anteater is recognized by its long tail, which reaches 0.9 m, almost as long as its body. Unlike long-snouted aardvarks, anteaters have small ears and eyes.

They also have thick fur covering their bodies. The fur is brown with black and white stripes on the shoulders. Giant anteaters have five claws on their hind and front legs, but the three inner claws are longer and sharper than the others.

Northern tamanduas have naked and irregular tails with black markings. Unlike the giant anteater species, they have four sharp claws on the forefeet and five on the hind feet. The third claw on their front feet is the longest, while the first claw is the shortest. They have large, protruding ears and tiny eyes.  

3. Tongue   

Aardvarks and anteaters rely on their tongues to feed ants and termites. Anteaters have narrow, sticky tongues about 61 cm long, looking like a strand of cooked spaghetti. The tongue has tiny spines pointing backward.

The spines covered in sticky saliva make the tongue sticky enough to pick up insects. Anteaters flick their tongues up to 150 times per minute while eating ants and termites. Unlike anteaters, aardvarks have shorter tongues. Their sticky tongues are about 30 cm long.

Other species of anteaters have shorter tongues than giant anteaters. The lesser anteater has a tongue that is 41 cm long with tiny barbs. In comparison, tamandua Mexicana's tongue is about 40 cm long.

4. Teeth   

Another difference between anteaters and aardvarks is their dental structure. Anteaters do not have teeth and have limited jaw movement. Their chewing muscles are underdeveloped and rely on the rotation of the two halves of their lower jaw connected by a ligament. An anteater’s mouth only has enough space to flick its tongue out. 

An anteater uses its sticky tongue to flick ants and termites into its mouth, using the tongue to crush the insects on the roof of its mouth before swallowing. There is no chewing involved in its eating habit.

Unlike anteaters, aardvarks have teeth. Their molars and premolars look like pegs. They don’t have incisors, canines, or enamels. Their molars and premolars contain a modified form of dentine covered in a layer of dental cement called cementum. An aardvark’s dental formula is 0/0 0/0 2/2 3/3.

5. Diet    

Aardvarks and anteaters are ant-eating mammals. They also eat other insects like termites, bees, and beetle larvae. The difference in their diet is in the quantity both mammals consume. Aardvarks eat ants and termites using their powerful claws to dig through the side or center of ant and termite mounds.

Then, they put their elongated snouts in anthills and use their long tongues to pick them up. They digest these small creatures in the pyloric region of aardvark’s muscular stomachs. Their thick skin protects them from soldier ants attacks as they feed. They mostly hunt for ants and termites at night, using their keen sense of smell to find termite mounds.

Aardvarks also eat a fruit called aardvark cucumber. Aardvark cucumber, also known as aardvark pumpkin, is a fruit native to South Africa, tropical Africa, and Madagascar. It fruits underground and relies on aardvarks to spread and rebury its seeds.

Anteaters eat ants and termites in large quantities daily. A giant anteater eats up to 30,000 ants daily, while northern tamandua eats more than 9,000 ants daily. A silky anteater eats 100 to 8,000 ants and termites, while a lesser anteater eats 9,000 ants daily.

Silky anteaters prefer white ants and termites, while northern tamandua prefer ants that nest in trees. They also prefer army, leaf-eating ants, and other ants that produce chemical defenses. In captivity, northern tamandua will eat fruits and meats.

Luckily, aardvarks and anteaters don’t destroy termite mounds and anthills. Once they are gone, ants and termites can still reconstruct them.  

6. Distribution & Habitat  

Anteaters and aardvarks occupy two different geographical zones in the world. The giant anteater is native to several areas in Central and South America. You will find anteaters in many habitats like grasslands, rainforests, savannas, and dry forests.

Lesser anteaters prefer the scrub forests of Central and South America. In contrast, silky anteaters live in the forests of Brazil, southern Mexico, and Bolivia. Anteaters mostly spend time in the trees. They only come down at night to forage for food.

Aardvarks live in African savannas, rainforests, woodlands, desert and xeric shrublands, Mediterranean forests, and flooded grasslands. They are native to sub-Saharan Africa. They mostly prefer areas with an abundance of their favorite insects, like ants and termites. Their burrow is often different from the location of the anthills and termite mounds.

7. Behavior    

A distinct difference between aardvarks and anteaters is their behavioral traits. Aardvarks are shy and solitary animals. Two animals are together only when the offspring follows the mother around until it becomes independent. You rarely see an aardvark because it is a nocturnal animal.  

Every time an aardvark leaves its den to forage for food, it has a ritual. It peeps out of its den opening and looks around for enemies. After it secures the area, it jumps around repeatedly before walking up to 5 km foraging for insects.

The giant anteater is also a diurnal solitary species. It ignores or runs from other anteaters in the wild. A giant anteater will become nocturnal during some weather periods and in areas with high human population.

Anteaters are good swimmers and excellent climbers. Despite their powerful claws, anteaters do not dig their burrows. They prefer to sleep in abandoned burrows, areas with dense vegetation, and regions with underground depressions.

Northern tamanduas spend most of their time in hollow trees, only coming down from the trees to eat. Northern tamanduas also move around differently from the giant anteater. 

A giant anteater shuffles around and moves slowly, while a northern anteater moves with a stiff-legged and clumsy gait. They walk with their arms outward to avoid harming themselves with their giant claws.

Northern tamanduas are active for 8 hours at a time. They are the only species of anteaters to release a potent odor from their anus to protect themselves from predators. It earned them the name ‘stinker of the forest’.

Silky anteaters are nocturnal creatures that seldom come down from the trees. They move very slowly but pack a punch when threatened by predators. They stand on their hind legs and hold tree branches with their hind feet and tails. Then, they put their forefeet close to their face like humans hold their fists during a fight and strike quickly with strong claws.

8. Communication  

 Communication is crucial to the lifestyle and survival of several species in the animal kingdom. Anteaters and aardvarks communicate in different ways. Aardvarks communicate by making grunting sounds. They bleat when they are afraid. An aardvark has an excellent sense of hearing, which makes up for its poor vision.

Anteaters communicate with snorts, hisses, and sniffs. They also roar during fights. An anteater relies on its excellent sense of smell, tactile stimulation, and hearing during communication.

9. Reproduction   

Both placental mammals, anteaters and aardvarks, exhibit different behaviors during the breeding season and have different gestation periods. An anteater’s gestation period lasts for six months, approximately 190 days. After the gestation period ends, the female anteater gives birth to one offspring, which weighs about 1.3kg.

She gives birth to a young anteater with a full coat and markings in a standing position. As soon as it comes out, her offspring climbs on her back. She carries it around for 6 to 8 months. The young one becomes independent after two years or when the mother becomes pregnant again. Anteaters reach sexual maturity at 2.5 to 4 years old.

Aardvarks have a polygynous mating system. During the mating season, male aardvarks secrete a strong musk in their genitals. However, researchers have yet to find obvious signs of scent markings. They become sexually active at two years old and breed once a year.

Aardvark's gestation period lasts for seven months. Young aardvarks are born without fur, and their eyes are wide open. A female aardvark can only birth one offspring at a time. She nurses the offspring for three months before weaning it off. The young aardvark becomes independent at six months.

10. Lifespan   

Anteaters live up to 26 years, while aardvarks live for 18 years in the wild. In captivity, aardvarks live for 23 years, while anteaters live for 25 years. The female aardvark's average lifespan in captivity is 18 years, while the male aardvark lives for 24 years.

Silky anteaters have an average lifespan of 2,4 years in captivity, while lesser anteaters live for 7.6 years. Northern tamanduas live an average of 9.5 months in captivity.

11. Conservation status 

Aardvarks are not threatened. The IUCN classified them as Least Concern. However, they are vulnerable in some areas of Africa because of humans. Aardvarks don’t have predators except human poachers. Some Africans kill aardvarks for their meat. Farmers and ranchers also kill them because they dislike their digging habits.

The IUCN listed giant anteaters as vulnerable. The human population encroaches on the anteater habitats, especially in South America and Brazil. Agricultural activities destroyed and fragmented their habitats.    

Conclusion   

Aardvarks and anteaters are weird animals living on entirely different continents. They might look similar, but they have many differences. An aardvark is bigger than an anteater, while anteaters have longer tongues. We hope the differences mentioned will help you recognize anteaters and aardvarks in the wild, even though sightings are rare. 

To learn more about other animals that resemble these two, check out our list of facts about pangolins and armadillos.