Whose cub is this? 

Suppose you find this cute little puppy in Africa, and put up a "lost and found" poster. Someone comes and claims that it is the cub's parent but looks like one of those evil hyenas in the movie Lion King. Would you give the puppy to this person? 

Don't worry. It is not a hyena, and it does not hunt animals like hyenas do. 

Meet the aardwolf, a close kin to hyenas but poles apart when it comes to its diet: aardwolf feeds on insects and larvae. Its favorite food is termites! 

Despite belonging to the carnivores family, the aardwolf does not like meat at all. It does not eat carcass like the hyenas either. "Aardwolf" means "earth wolf," and it does find food in the earth. The aardwolf has a long, sticky tongue for foraging termites. One aardwolf can lap up as many as 250,000 termites during a single night. It even has cheek teeth especially for eating insects. The aardwolf has canines, but unlike hyenas, these teeth are used primarily for fighting and defense, not for tearing up meat. 

The animal is also smart enough to know not to destroy the termite hill, and it will not eat up an entire colony of termites, so it can have continuous supply of food. 

Another cool characteristic of the aardwolf is that, both male and female have scent glands. They mark termite mounds within their territory every 20 minutes or so, and sometimes every 50 meters. When attacked, the aardwolf emits liquids from the glands, which smell really bad, as self defense. 

The gentle animals form families comprising one husband, one wife and several children. They are good parents, so you can rest assured and give the cub to its mom and dad now. Before you say goodbye to the aardwolf family, you may want to take some more looks at the super cute aardwolf puppy! 

(All pictures via VGC. Cover photo via VCG, designed by CGTN's Du Chenxin)

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at nature@cgtn.com.)