---
title: "Eastern Aardwolf"
description: "Proteles septentrionalis — Ssaki. The aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) is an insectivorous hyaenid species, native to East and Southern Africa."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pl/animal/eastern-aardwolf
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Eastern Aardwolf

> Proteles septentrionalis — Ssaki. The aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) is an insectivorous hyaenid species, native to East and Southern Africa.

- Scientific name: *Proteles septentrionalis*
- Category: `mammals` (Ssaki)
- Habitats: `grassland` (Łąki i pola), `savanna` (Sawanna)
- iNaturalist observations: 70
- iNaturalist taxon: [1431008](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1431008)

## Names

- en: Eastern Aardwolf
- de: Nördlicher Erdwolf
- es: Proteles Septentrional

## Countries with the most observations

KE (40), TZ (16), ET (5)

## Summary

The aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) is an insectivorous hyaenid species, native to East and Southern Africa. Its name means "earth-wolf" in Afrikaans and Dutch. It is also called the maanhaarjakkals (Afrikaans for 'mane-jackal'), termite-eating hyena and civet hyena, based on its habit of secreting substances from its anal gland, a characteristic shared with the African civet.
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 300,000 termites during a single night using its long, sticky…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardwolf

## Photo

![Eastern Aardwolf](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/eastern-aardwolf/medium.jpg)

Photo: Kian Hayles-Cotton · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/136597542

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/eastern-aardwolf?lang=pl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).