Aardvarks! Seeking them in the wild and the zoo.

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I've now been to 4 African countries and have failed to see an aardvark in any of them, although I have seen their holes so I know that they're there.

In talking with several people it becomes clear that on a casual safari there is almost zero chance of seeing an aardvark as they are nocturnal and apparently have complex networks of holes and tunnels that allow them to see people coming and easily evade them. I talked with a guy who has lived in and around Kruger his entire life and been a safari guide there for 25 years and has never seen one in Kruger.

Has anybody here ever seen a wild aardvark? Is there any place in Africa where there is a decent chance of seeing one?

While I'm at it, where are the best aardvark exhibits in the zoo world? As far as I can tell there are no longer any aardvarks in the western US, although Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma and the San Diego Wild Animal Park used to have them. As I recall Tacoma had them in a big glass fronted terrarium in their weird small mammal adaptations exhibit which has since been bulldozed. San Diego had a single aardvark in a dusty open corral. It was an education animal essentially. I got to pet it once and that was cool, but the exhibit was pretty bad.

Are there any great aardvark exhibits in the world and if so, what makes them great? Are there even any decent aardvark exhibits in the world?

It seems likely that the only way most people will ever see an aardvark, even those of us who have sought them out in the wild, is in a zoo. Hopefully there are some good homes for them out there.
 
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Both Detroit and Cincinnati hold aardvarks. If memory serves, Cincy was a smaller, indoor nocturnal exhibit; while it has been about five years since my last Detroit visit, their aardvark was happily tooling around his outdoor enclosure. Don't make me search through my photo archive and dig out pictures! :)
 
I just recently saw two extremely active and energetic aardvarks in Omaha's Kingdoms of the Night nocturnal house, but in terms of a great exhibit I had a wonderful experience in 2008 at Detroit Zoo watching an aardvark dig furiously all around its large, excellent outdoor habitat.
 
I've heard Detroit has a very nice exhibit for Aardvarks.
Bronx has them in an indoor exhibit that is a bit small, but they also share the enclosure with White-Faced Scops Owls and Maxwell's Duikers.
 
Brookfield Zoo has aardvarks, which have successfully bred many times
 
I've been lucky enough to see a wild aardvark, at a now-defunct private game reserve in Kenya called Delamere's Camp on the shores of Lake Elementaita. It was on a night drive and we watched the aardvark digging before it noticed us and then blazed a trail across the short grass savanna. Totally cool. Apparently this was a fairly common sighting at this location, but at every other place I've been in Africa even the local guides and researchers basically never see them. Also saw African wildcat, white-tailed mongoose, crested porcupine and springhares galore on the same drive. A life highlight for sure.

Tacoma and San Diego Safari Park both have aardvarks in their program animal collections.

I've never seen a really good zoo aardvark exhibit, although the moated area within the Burger's Bush rainforest hall in Arnhem with 4-5 active aardvarks was not bad.
 
According to Wikipedia, aardvarks are found throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and are 'least concern'. I thought that aardvarks would have been as common as wombats in Oz.

Do you think that maybe they are not as widespread or as common as we are led to believe? And if so, what has caused their decline? The usual suspects of habitat loss and over hunting, or maybe it's a disease? Or maybe they are simply difficult to spot, like leopards?
 
DavidBrown said:
I've now been to 4 African countries and have failed to see an aardvark in any of them, although I have seen their holes so I know that they're there.

In talking with several people it becomes clear that on a casual safari there is almost zero chance of seeing an aardvark as they are nocturnal and apparently have complex networks of holes and tunnels that allow them to see people coming and easily evade them. I talked with a guy who has lived in and around Kruger his entire life and been a safari guide there for 25 years and has never seen one in Kruger.

Has anybody here ever seen a wild aardvark? Is there any place in Africa where there is a decent chance of seeing one?
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are you familiar with mammalwatching.com? Might be worth a browse through the trip reports on there.
 
I've had my best views of zoo aardvarks in nocturnal exhibits, eg Antwerp and Frankfurt, where they have been very active. In diurnal exhibits they almost always seem to be sleeping, not surprising really.
 
I saw an aardvark whilst on holiday on Kenya 20 odd years ago. It was trotting along at the side of a road (not even in a game park) and I didnt realise at the time how lucky I was to see one. More recently, in Botswana and Namibia I was told there was virtually no chance of seeing one, although I did see one of their burrows.
I think the problems of keeping aardvark in zoos is common to most larger nocturnal animals, and aardvarks are both large and active creatures. It is hard to provide enough space in an expensive inside reverse-lighting exhibit. There was / is a nice nocturnal exhibit in Berlin mixed with springhaas and hedgehogs, but the space still seemed quite small.
Perhaps they are better in outdoor enclosures which can be made much larger. The ones in Chester sleep most of the day but are quite active and nice to watch late in the afternoon. But then I guess there is a problem in temperate climates during winter when it gets very cold at night... In this scenario they probably have to spend most of their waking time in their generally small inside quarters...
 
I saw one in Kyle National Park, Zimbabwe back in 1985. Was 4pm (sun was to go down soon) and it was trotting along the side of the road. Stopped when it saw me, paused, and then headed off into the undergrowth.

I've seen a few aardvark enclosures over the years, and even in the Nocturnal Houses they seem to sleep alot. Most recent one was at Honolulu Zoo in thoer African Safari area. Outdoor exhibit, nothing special or great, and it was sleeping eveytime I walked past.

:p

Hix
 
Visited this past March with a long time guide based in Arusha I know, who for a time had them living in his backyard, but sadly gone by the time of my visit!

Judging by the number of holes seen in the Serengeti, there appear to be no shortage. When I asked, the guide said he's seen them a handful of times... but in the private reserves around the Serengeti where one can do night drives. As mentioned above, very hard for the average tourist in the region despite many around. Apparently ratel are actually more often seen at dusk, though no such luck yet for me.
 
I haven't been in a while, but Rolling Hills Wildlife Park has a decent indoor and outdoor exhibit for them. Last time I was there they had a pair with their newborn.
 
What I meant to say there was one there back in 2005, but I think it and the former meerkat exhibit were demolished before the construction of Russia's Grizzly Coast. I'm not a zoologist, but I can say almost for sure that aardvarks would not really fit in that theme:)
 
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