Species → Aardvark
Aardvark
Orycteropus afer
What if it disappeared?
Impact ModerateThe critically endangered African wild dog typically selects old aardvark burrows — rather than rock crevices — to give birth and shelter its pups during their first weeks, when they are most vulnerable to predators: without these burrows, it would lose an already scarce shelter.
DocumentedDetail
Jackson, C.R., Power, R.J., Groom, R.J. et al. (2014). Heading for the Hills: Risk Avoidance Drives Den Site Selection in African Wild Dogs. PLOS ONE, 9(6), e99686.
The study, covering packs monitored across several southern and eastern African countries, confirms that wild dog packs typically use burrows excavated by the aardvark or by other partly fossorial mammals, or caves and crevices in rugged terrain — without, however, quantifying the exact proportion of dens housed in former aardvark burrows versus the other refuge types, nor whether a rock crevice can genuinely substitute at the same scale.
Beyond the shelter it offers the wild dog, the aardvark itself measurably alters the soil around its burrows through digging — but not the same way everywhere: in mesic grassland and semi-arid savanna, soil there is markedly less compacted than elsewhere, while in arid scrubland this same effect disappears statistically.
DocumentedDetail
Louw, M.A., Haussmann, N.S. et le Roux, P.C. (2019). Testing for consistency in the impacts of a burrowing ecosystem engineer on soil and vegetation characteristics across biomes. Scientific Reports, 9, 19355.
The authors sampled 60 burrows in mesic grassland, 71 in semi-arid savanna and 10 in arid scrubland (out of 11 recorded, one occupied by a bee colony). Soil compaction was significantly lower than at control sites in mesic grassland and savanna (p < 0.001), but showed no measurable difference in arid scrubland (p > 0.1); soil moisture followed a reversed pattern by biome — higher at controls in mesic grassland, higher at burrows in savanna. In total, 166 plant species were recorded in mesic grassland, 32 in semi-arid savanna and 30 in arid scrubland — the highest plant diversity coinciding with the biome where the burrow's soil effect, and so its loss should the species disappear, is also strongest.
Beyond the wild dog, a long list of species — from the ground pangolin to the brown hyena, along with reptiles and insects — is also thought to occupy former aardvark burrows across the savanna, though without a systematic count of how many genuinely depend on them.
ExtrapolatedDetail
Extrapolation à partir de Whittington-Jones, G.M., Bernard, R.T.F. et Parker, D.M. (2011). Aardvark Burrows: A Potential Resource for Animals in Arid and Semi-Arid Environments. African Zoology, 46(2), 362–370 — l'étude documente la réutilisation des terriers par d'autres espèces sans en chiffrer précisément l'ampleur.
The authors record, through direct observation and camera traps, a range of species using former aardvark burrows in arid and semi-arid zones — but the article does not provide a systematic count of the number of species or the frequency of use, unlike the soil effect measured by Louw et al. across three biomes.
What's missing to confirm it: A systematic count, comparable to Louw et al.'s soil study, of how many species genuinely depend on aardvark burrows rather than using them occasionally among other available shelters.
Documentation
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IUCN Red List — Orycteropus afer, statut de conservation
Accessed August 14, 2026
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Louw, Haussmann & le Roux (2019) — Testing for consistency in the impacts of a burrowing ecosystem engineer on soil and vegetation characteristics across biomes, Scientific Reports
Accessed August 14, 2026
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Jackson et al. (2014) — Heading for the Hills: Risk Avoidance Drives Den Site Selection in African Wild Dogs, PLOS ONE
Accessed August 14, 2026
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Whittington-Jones, Bernard & Parker (2011) — Aardvark Burrows: A Potential Resource for Animals in Arid and Semi-Arid Environments, African Zoology
Accessed August 14, 2026
Last verified: August 14, 2026