Arthur Abbott, aged 12, of Dorchester,Mass., for his question;
What is an aardvark?
The aardvark is a very distinguished animal. He is the first animal to be listed in the dictionary. Not many animals have names beginning with two-letter ale. There is an aardwolf. But letter v comes before letter w in dictionary listings. This puts the aardvark ahead in the dictionary parade.
The Dutch who settled South Africa named this amazing animal. They wanted to name him after some animal they already knew. But, for the life of them, they couldn’t find any known animal which resembled him. Finally they called him aardvark, which means earth pig.
The earth part of his name is very suitable. For the aardvark is a great borrower. However, hardly anything about him is like a pig. He is more like a fat, dumpy kangaroo with short hind legs. He certainly has no curl in his sturdy tail. His ears are long and pointed. They are equipped with very acute hearing,
The earth pig has a long slender snout. But he does not use it to gobble from a trough. He is an ant eater. He eats no vegetables, salads or fruits ‑ only ante. And his mouth is especially made for ant‑eating. He has a long sticky tongue. His only teeth are chompers. There are five on each side, top and bottom, making twenty in all. The aardvark has no front teeth to get in the way of his flicking tongue.
Even in his native Africa the aardvark is seen only very rarely. He is a night hunter and hates to come above ground in the daytime. Most of his traveling is done underground. He can dig himself through hard, dry ground in a few minutes. He uses his front feet to tear up great lumps of earth. He tosses the loose dirt behind him between his fat hind legs.
The aardvark goes underground to do his hunting. He hunts for ants' nests. There are plenty of ants in South Africa and Ethiopia, where the aardvark lives. Some of them build nests seven feet high. Such nests teem with eggs, larva. and grown ants ‑ all delicious food for Mr. Earth Pig,
When he finds one of these ante' nests, the aardvark breaks a hole into it and waits. Pretty soon, a work gang of little insects rushes along to repair the damage. This is dinner time for the aardvark. He flashes out his long tongue. The ants stick to it. He laps up the little creatures, chomps and swallows them a dozen at a time. Full grown an ant‑eating aardvark may grow six feet long ‑ this includes his tail.