What is the maximal age a Aardwolf reaches?
An adult Aardwolf (Proteles cristata) usually gets as old as 25 years.
Aardwolfs are around 90 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 275 grams (0.61 lbs) and measure 4 cm (0′ 2″). As a member of the Hyaenidae family (genus: Proteles), their offspring is 2 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 69.7 cm (2′ 4″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.

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
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Hyaenidae):
- Striped hyena becoming 24 years old
- Spotted hyena becoming 41.08 years old
- Aardwolf becoming 25 years old
- Brown hyena becoming 17 years old
- Brown hyena becoming 17 years old
Animals that reach the same age as Aardwolf
With an average age of 25 years, Aardwolf are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Red river hog usually reaching 20 years
- Cape porcupine usually reaching 20 years
- Honey badger usually reaching 26.5 years
- Hartebeest usually reaching 20 years
- Townsend’s big-eared bat usually reaching 21.17 years
- Red-shanked douc usually reaching 25 years
- Eurasian beaver usually reaching 25 years
- Goitered gazelle usually reaching 20 years
- Serval usually reaching 23 years
- Eastern grey kangaroo usually reaching 24 years
Animals with the same number of babies Aardwolf
The same number of babies at once (2) are born by:
- American black bear
- Sikkim mountain vole
- Golden spiny mouse
- Black-footed tree-rat
- Florida mouse
- California kangaroo rat
- Soft-spined Atlantic spiny rat
- Congo rope squirrel
- Yunnan hare
- Highland tuco-tuco
Weighting as much as Aardwolf
A fully grown Aardwolf reaches around 8.14 kg (17.94 lbs). So do these animals:
- Pig-tailed langur weighting 7.39 kilos (16.29 lbs) on average
- Yellow-tailed woolly monkey weighting 8.27 kilos (18.23 lbs) on average
- Mountain paca weighting 9 kilos (19.84 lbs) on average
- Black-headed spider monkey weighting 9.07 kilos (20 lbs) on average
- Northern white-cheeked gibbon weighting 7.32 kilos (16.14 lbs) on average
- Tonkin snub-nosed monkey weighting 9.09 kilos (20.04 lbs) on average
- North American porcupine weighting 7.42 kilos (16.36 lbs) on average
- Tana River mangabey weighting 7.08 kilos (15.61 lbs) on average
- Guatemalan black howler weighting 7.19 kilos (15.85 lbs) on average
- Gee’s golden langur weighting 8.36 kilos (18.43 lbs) on average
Animals as big as a Aardwolf
Those animals grow as big as a Aardwolf:
- Culpeo with 72.4 cm (2′ 5″)
- Siamang with 82.4 cm (2′ 9″)
- Sarcophilus laniarius with 55.8 cm (1′ 10″)
- Spotted-necked otter with 59.4 cm (2′ 0″)
- Gray dorcopsis with 66.4 cm (2′ 3″)
- Hoary fox with 60.3 cm (2′ 0″)
- Water chevrotain with 75 cm (2′ 6″)
- Black-shanked douc with 60.9 cm (2′ 0″)
- Golden snub-nosed monkey with 64.7 cm (2′ 2″)
- Alaskan hare with 57.6 cm (1′ 11″)
