THE AARDVARK

In a time when people are being asked to consider eating insects, we should, perhaps, learn a thing or two from the aardvark (Orycteropus afer), Africa’s ant-guzzling gourmand. On an average night, the big-schnozzed mammal devours up to 50,000 of the crunchy critters.

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Save for the occasional ‘aardvark cucumber’ – more on them later– aardvarks dine exclusively on ants and termites. And why not? Ants and termites have a collective biomass that’s 10 times greater than that of all wild mammals – there’s plenty of them around to eat, in other words. Aardvarks, who also go by the name of African ant bears, have a special knack for this. In search of a snack, aardvarks must first break into an ant nest or termite mound. Stocky leg bones, reinforced with compacted connective tissue, help to absorb the strain of digging, as sturdy claws rip their way into the robust repository.

This enrages the ants, which may swarm, bite or spray formic acid at the intruder.