How many baby Aardwolfs are in a litter?
A Aardwolf (Proteles cristata) usually gives birth to around 2 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 90 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 275 grams (0.61 lbs) and measure 4 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Hyaenidae family (genus: Proteles). An adult Aardwolf grows up to a size of 69.7 cm (2′ 4″).
To have a reference: Humans obviously usually have a litter size of one ;). Their babies are in the womb of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks) and reach an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). They weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual, and reach an average age of 75 years.
The aardwolf (Proteles cristata) is an insectivorous mammal, native to East and Southern Africa. Its name means “earth-wolf” in Afrikaans and Dutch. It is also called “maanhaar-jackal” (Afrikaans for “mane-jackal”), “Nxi” by the Nama people, “ant hyena”, “termite-eating hyena” and “civet hyena”, based on its habit of secreting substances from its anal gland, a characteristic shared with the African civet. The aardwolf is in the same family as the hyena. Unlike many of its relatives in the order Carnivora, the aardwolf does not hunt large animals. It eats insects and their larvae, mainly termites; one aardwolf can lap up as many as 250,000 termites during a single night using its long, sticky tongue.The aardwolf lives in the shrublands of eastern and southern Africa – open lands covered with stunted trees and shrubs. It is nocturnal, resting in burrows during the day and emerging at night to seek food.
Other animals of the family Hyaenidae
Aardwolf is a member of the Hyaenidae, as are these animals:
- Brown hyena with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Aardwolf with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Brown hyena with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Striped hyena with 2 babies per pregnancy
- Spotted hyena with 2 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Aardwolf
Those animals also give birth to 2 babies at once:
- Rusty-spotted genet
- Myosorex varius
- Reindeer
- Geoffroy’s cat
- Shaw Mayer’s brush mouse
- Long-tailed pygmy possum
- Unalaska collared lemming
- Cape short-eared gerbil
- North African elephant shrew
- Mexican small-eared shrew
Animals that get as old as a Aardwolf
Other animals that usually reach the age of 25 years:
- Hartebeest with 20 years
- Vicuña with 24.75 years
- Golden lion tamarin with 24.75 years
- Eastern gray squirrel with 24 years
- Raccoon with 20.83 years
- Proboscis monkey with 21 years
- Stump-tailed macaque with 30 years
- Sambar deer with 26.42 years
- Mantled howler with 25 years
- Common wallaroo with 24 years
Animals with the same weight as a Aardwolf
What other animals weight around 8.14 kg (17.94 lbs)?
- North American porcupine usually reaching 7.42 kgs (16.36 lbs)
- Brush-tailed rock-wallaby usually reaching 6.94 kgs (15.3 lbs)
- Pygmy hog usually reaching 7.92 kgs (17.46 lbs)
- Aders’s duiker usually reaching 9.25 kgs (20.39 lbs)
- Tasmanian devil usually reaching 8.2 kgs (18.08 lbs)
- Black colobus usually reaching 9.1 kgs (20.06 lbs)
- Honey badger usually reaching 9 kgs (19.84 lbs)
- Pudú usually reaching 9.6 kgs (21.16 lbs)
- Phayre’s leaf monkey usually reaching 7.69 kgs (16.95 lbs)
- Mountain paca usually reaching 9 kgs (19.84 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Aardwolf
Also reaching around 69.7 cm (2′ 4″) in size do these animals:
- North American river otter gets as big as 68.5 cm (2′ 3″)
- Preuss’s red colobus gets as big as 57.9 cm (1′ 11″)
- Formosan rock macaque gets as big as 56 cm (1′ 11″)
- Owston’s palm civet gets as big as 57.2 cm (1′ 11″)
- White-tailed mongoose gets as big as 57.3 cm (1′ 11″)
- Red forest duiker gets as big as 78.7 cm (2′ 7″)
- Bush dog gets as big as 62.6 cm (2′ 1″)
- Marine otter gets as big as 67.8 cm (2′ 3″)
- King colobus gets as big as 62.7 cm (2′ 1″)
- Red panda gets as big as 58.3 cm (1′ 11″)