Meet the Aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) – also known as: Thukwi, the civet hyena, and a straight up fucking oddity and all-round phenomena. For now, let’s just call her Thukwi, her Setswana name.
Rarely has there even been a character as completely unreal and charismatically cool as Thukwi. When she is very rarely found, it’s in the deep, dark, dead of night in only the wildest areas; and it’s long been postulated that when Thukwi does make an appearance on the plains, it is merely for a midnight snack. She then returns home to a mystic realm to hang her regal stripes and smoke midnight herbs with the gods of forgotten wisdoms and indiscernible wonderful and terrible things.
She should not be confused with her cousin the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) who is much larger and consumes rotting flesh and carrion. Rather, Thukwi has chosen a milder diet of insects – particularly termites of which she is very fond. And so, while she is very much scientifically a member of the hyena genus, she is undoubtedly the black (and slightly striped) sheep of that hyena family. Her dietary preferences and midnight peculiarities make it hard for her to fit in, and she is likely no longer invited to family lunches.
Her decision to branch away from a pack of carrion eating shit grinning hyenas is admirable and perhaps we could learn a thing or two from Thukwi. Maybe our genes and upbringing do not define us. Maybe Thukwi represents courage in the face of ugliness and stands as a testament to how following your own path leads to an emerging enlightenment. I’ve started to go down a (proverbial) Aardwolf hole here, but I’m inclined to ramble on.
So why the talk on Aardwolves? Yesterday, a new friend of mine called Tom – who has been cooking up his own crazy magic by literally bringing the Kwagga back to life – gifted me the sun baked skull of an Aardwolf he found on the mountainous slopes of his farm in the Western Cape. It’s unlike any skull I have ever come across, and it is a complete treasure. I am deeply grateful to Tom for this gift.
At first glance, there does not seem to be anything particularly striking about the skull, but the more I look at it, and the more I associate it with Thukwi, the more magical it becomes. What this skull has is depth and magnetism. It comes from a place of deep wisdom, and it clearly belonged to an extraordinary animal who exists somewhere out there just out of sight. Somewhere between the mystic ethereal world, and our own. There is something deeply alluring about the Aardwolf, and you can feel it with this skull – an elegant macabre that’s both alluring and unsettling at the same time.
And then there are the teeth… and this was completely unexpected. Thukwi has sharp canines, but more interesting are the small sharp molars that run to the back of his mouth. They look odd and out of place. There is absolutely nothing about his teeth that are in any way suggestive of an insectivore diet. None whatsoever. And this is very curious. Other mammalian insectivores are different. The aardvark (Orycteropus afer) has heavy set back molars (likely used to chew on the occasional Kalahari cucumber), and the Ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) has no teeth at all. All things told, Thukwi is an animal the old gods clearly designed to be a carnivore. However, without any further help from either the gods or natural selection, Thukwi appears to have made a brave decision to shun his genetic predisposition in favour of a different diet. I find this fascinating and cannot think of another example from the natural world where this has occurred. I imagine at some point back in time she took a sniff of a rotting warthog carcass and said <Fuck that, I’m getting termite takeout>, and she never looked back.
I have only ever seen an Aardwolf once, in the deep Kalahari, long past midnight, and even then, it was so fleeting I wonder whether I saw it at all. There is clearly something mystical about Thukwi. A regal bush spectre or some such.
Within traditional Tswana folklore, there are not many tales about Thukwi. However, there is mysticism attached Thukwi and her nocturnal witch habits. Within iKung (San) indigenous culture, there are mentions of a special cap that was made from the mane of an Aardwolf and worn by the leader of a community when at war with a neighbouring community. This cap, imbued with the magic of Thukwi, would provide special protection for the tribe. Or something along those lines. I will have to sit and speak of this more deeply with the elders for clarity.
Whatever the folklore, there is clearly something we can learn from the Aardwolf. Could this be the natural world showing that we are all capable of changing our circumstances? Could the Aardwolf be showing us that we are not obliged to follow the rules set out for us? And that if we want to be more than what we were born to be, we just have to look to Thukwi?
But maybe there is more to it than that. With her skeletal coat, and deathly eyes, I wonder whether she might still be in league with her hyena cousins. Perhaps they band together at times of revelation: spotted, brown, striped, and the deathly Aardwolf. Conquest, War, Famine, and Death riding together. And as with the four horsemen, Thukwi, the transcendent representation of death inhabits a space in both worlds. Perhaps, while her cousins bring death and feast upon it, Thukwi embodies death and is the ultimate gatekeeper and deliverer? Perhaps it is she who comes to claim us when our time has come. Hell, when people say that they’re dying to see an Aardwolf, perhaps they really mean it. And maybe, when that mighty foghorn blows for me in the distant future, it will be Thukwi waiting for me at that midnight crossroads to call me home… and maybe we might just amble off together into the mystic.
Well, that was quite ramble. If you are interested in seeing an Aardwolf, you’ll need to visit an area with open spaces and stay at lodge that offers night game drives. We have had lucky guests staying at Tau Pan and Lebala Camp who have seen Aardwolves while there. Nonetheless, it is rare to see an Aardwolf. About as rare as seeing a pangolin. However, whether you see one or not, it will be an unforgettable adventure, and that really is what an Aarwolf is all about. This deeper understanding of the wild and how everything is connected.
