Philadelphia Aardvark Dies

We interrupt today’s regularly-scheduled bitching about the soda tax to bring you some legitimately sad news: the oldest captive aardvark in the United States has passed away, and he was a resident of the Philadelphia Zoo. Today, the zoo announced that AJ, a male aardvark, had passed away of heart failure.

AJ the aardvark has passed away. having lived an extraordinarily long life for a member of his species.

According to ABC6, AJ was born in captivity, at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden on November 4th, 1988. He had been living at the Philadelphia Zoo for most of his life, having lived there since November 15, 1989. He lived in the zoo’s Small Mammal House with the meerkats and another aardvark, a female named Sunshine who is twelve years old.

Per Wikipedia, aardvarks are nocturnal, burrowing animals native to Africa. Their name comes from the Afrikaans language and means “ground pig.” The animal is sometimes referred to as either the “African ground bear” or “Cape anteater.” Despite its host of nicknames, the aardvark is not related to the bear, the pig, or the anteater in any way. They are the only extant species of the order Tubulidentata, and they normally live into their teens or early twenties. This means that AJ had a long life indeed.

The Philadelphia Zoo described AJ as “beloved” on their Facebook page, issuing this statement: “AJ will be remembered for his love of back rubs and his selective palate – although aardvarks are insect eaters, AJ preferred ants and termites over crickets and mealworms. He will be greatly missed by guests and staff alike.”

I myself had never thought too much about aardvarks before writing this post, but they have a particular sort of jolie-laide to them, which is to say that they are “ugly cute.” I never got the chance to meet AJ, but now I take an interest in learning more about his species and maybe one day being able to say that I’ve seen one at a zoo. Rest easy, AJ.