It is hard to guess what a Aardwolf weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Aardwolf (Proteles cristata) on average weights 8.14 kg (17.94 lbs).
The Aardwolf is from the family Hyaenidae (genus: Proteles). It is usually born with about 275 grams (0.61 lbs). They can live for up to 25 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 69.7 cm (2′ 4″). Usually, Aardwolfs have 2 babies per litter.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
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.
Animals of the same family as a Aardwolf
We found other animals of the Hyaenidae family:
- Brown hyena bringing 43.4 kilos (95.68 lbs) to the scale
- Spotted hyena bringing 63.69 kilos (140.41 lbs) to the scale
- Brown hyena bringing 42.98 kilos (94.75 lbs) to the scale
- Aardwolf bringing 8.29 kilos (18.28 lbs) to the scale
- Striped hyena bringing 35.09 kilos (77.36 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a Aardwolf
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Proteles cristata:
- Pennant’s colobus with a weight of 9.16 kilos (20.19 lbs)
- Short-eared dog with a weight of 8.36 kilos (18.43 lbs)
- Assam macaque with a weight of 8.55 kilos (18.85 lbs)
- Koala with a weight of 6.55 kilos (14.44 lbs)
- Neotropical otter with a weight of 6.55 kilos (14.44 lbs)
- Sharpe’s grysbok with a weight of 9.37 kilos (20.66 lbs)
- Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo with a weight of 6.65 kilos (14.66 lbs)
- François’ langur with a weight of 8.16 kilos (17.99 lbs)
- Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo with a weight of 7.98 kilos (17.59 lbs)
- Large Indian civet with a weight of 9.15 kilos (20.17 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Aardwolf
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Aardwolf:
- Honey badger with a size of 68.4 cm (2′ 3″)
- Red-legged pademelon with a size of 56.6 cm (1′ 11″)
- Collared mangabey with a size of 66 cm (2′ 2″)
- Western long-beaked echidna with a size of 67.5 cm (2′ 3″)
- Leopard cat with a size of 68.4 cm (2′ 3″)
- Indian crested porcupine with a size of 75 cm (2′ 6″)
- Alaskan hare with a size of 57.6 cm (1′ 11″)
- Hose’s palm civet with a size of 60.1 cm (2′ 0″)
- Hoary fox with a size of 60.3 cm (2′ 0″)
- Geoffroy’s cat with a size of 57.6 cm (1′ 11″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Aardwolf
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (2) as a Aardwolf:
- Indomalayan pencil-tailed tree mouse
- White-bellied mosaic-tailed rat
- Greater mole-rat
- Tres Marías Island mouse
- Crested agouti
- Aardwolf
- Brants’s whistling rat
- Buller’s chipmunk
- Short-tailed chinchilla
- Brazilian guinea pig
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Aardwolf
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Aardwolf:
- Giant panda with an average maximal age of 30 years
- Mediterranean monk seal with an average maximal age of 23.67 years
- Goat with an average maximal age of 20.75 years
- Dall’s porpoise with an average maximal age of 22 years
- Bighorn sheep with an average maximal age of 24 years
- Brown-mantled tamarin with an average maximal age of 24.5 years
- Margay with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Black lemur with an average maximal age of 30 years
- Blue wildebeest with an average maximal age of 21.5 years
- Pacific white-sided dolphin with an average maximal age of 25 years