Aardvarks
28-12-2023
1 min read
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Overview:
A recent study from Oregon State University found that a warming climate is negatively impacting the chances of long-term survival of aardvarks in sub-Saharan Africa.
About Aardvarks
- It gets its name from a South African word meaning “earth pig.”
- Appearance: They look like a pig, especially with its body and snout.
- They actually share common ancestors with elephants and golden moles.
- They are nocturnal mammals, most active at night and tend to live alone. During the day, they sleep curled up in a ball in their burrows.
- This species has been assessed as having the highest score for evolutionary distinctiveness,
- This is because it does not have many close relatives and has been evolving independently for millions of years.
- The Aardvark is the sole surviving species of its order, Tubulidentata, and its closest relatives have been extinct since the Pleistocene era (2 million years ago).
- Diet: The aardvark’s diet consists almost entirely of ants and termites.
- Habitat: Aardvarks are found over much of the southern two-thirds of Africa and their habitat is savannah and semiarid areas.
- Ecosystem Roles: Aardvarks are important in their ecosystem because the holes they dig are used by a variety of other animals for shelter.
- Conservation Status
- IUCN :Least Concern
- The recent study concluded that the genetic structure of aardvarks is strongly shaped by climate, with arid areas limiting gene flow and reflected apparent isolation by adaptation associated with temperature.
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Q1) What is Savanna vegetation?
It is a vegetation type that grows under hot, seasonally dry climatic conditions and is characterized by an open tree canopy (i.e., scattered trees) above a continuous tall grass understory (the vegetation layer between the forest canopy and the ground). The largest areas of savanna are found in Africa, South America, Australia and India etc.