Their coarse hair ranges in color from pinkish to grayish. The animals lack front teeth. But the peglike molars on the sides of their mouths grow throughout their lives. Unlike the teeth of many mammals, aardvarks' molars do not have an enamel coating. Instead, a hard tissue called cementum covers the teeth.
Aardvarks have four sharp, spoon-shaped claws on their front feet and five on their hind feet.
When attacked, they roll on their backs and use their claws for defense. Lions, leopards, and people often kill aardvarks for food. An aardvark digs burrows faster than most other animals. It can make a deep hole in only a few minutes. Although the aardvark does not have good eyesight, it uses its excellent senses of smell and hearing to find prey.