MammalBase - Accepted taxon: Orycteropus afer

Accepted taxon: Orycteropus afer
Taxon:	Orycteropus afer
Rank:	Species
Higher Classification:	TUBULIDENTATA \| Orycteropodidae \| Orycteropus
Reference:	Wilson, Don E., and DeeAnn M. Reeder, eds. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed), JHU Press, 2005.

Fig.1 - Ternary plot of the proximate analysis for the Orycteropus afer diet.
CF (Crude Fibre) 3, ASH (Ash contents) 2, NFE (Nitrogen-Free-Extract) 24, CP (Crude Protein) 25, EE (Ether Extract) 18. See details for the calculations in Lintulaakso, K., Tatti, N. and Žliobaitė, I., 2022. Quantifying mammalian diets. Mammalian Biology, pp.1-15. [DOI]

Table 1. List of Diet Items for Orycteropus afer.
TSN Complete name	Part	Ratio ^a.	Reference(s)
Termitidae	WHOLE	48.79	Damuth, J…
Formicidae	WHOLE	19.70	Damuth, J…
Anoplolepis custodiens	WHOLE	12.12	Grzimek,B…
Nasutitermitinae	WHOLE	9.09	Grzimek,B…
Insecta	WHOLE	3.64	Nowak,R. …
Macrotermitinae	WHOLE	3.03	Grzimek,B…
Steatomys pratensis	WHOLE	2.42	Nowak,R. …
Marah gilensis	FRUIT	1.21	Nowak,R. …

^a. Standardized values. See details for the calculations in Lintulaakso, K., Tatti, N. and Žliobaitė, I., 2022. Quantifying mammalian diets. Mammalian Biology, pp.1-15. [DOI]

Table 2. List of Standard Traits for Orycteropus afer.
Trait	Selected Value	All Value(s)	Reference(s)
Dietary category: Eisenberg 1981	Insectivore	Carnivore, Insectivore	– Brian K. McNab, 1986, 'The Influence of Food Habits on the Energetics of Eutherian Mammals', Ecological Monographs, vol. 56, no. 1, p. 1, Matt Sponheimer, Julia A. Lee-Thorp, 2001, 'The oxygen isotope composition of mammalian enamel carbonate from Morea Estate, South Africa', Oecologia, vol. 126, no. 2, pp. 153-157
Dietary category: Miljutin 2009	Animalivore	Animalivore	– Brian K. McNab, 1986, 'The Influence of Food Habits on the Energetics of Eutherian Mammals', Ecological Monographs, vol. 56, no. 1, p. 1, Matt Sponheimer, Julia A. Lee-Thorp, 2001, 'The oxygen isotope composition of mammalian enamel carbonate from Morea Estate, South Africa', Oecologia, vol. 126, no. 2, pp. 153-157

Table 3. List of Standard Measurements for Orycteropus afer.
Measurement	Location	Unit	n Total	n Unknown	n Female	n Male	Min	Mean	Max	SD	Reference(s)
Body Mass (BM)	nan	g	16	-	16	-	-	51,400	-	-	Nelson, A…
Body Mass (BM)	nan	g	1	1	-	-	-	44,320	-	-	Engelman,…
Body Mass (BM)	nan	g	15	-	-	15	-	53,300	-	-	Nelson, A…

Table 4. List of other Measurements ^b. for Orycteropus afer.
Measurement	Location	Unit	n Total	n Unknown	n Female	n Male	Min	Mean	Max	SD	Reference(s)

^b. other Measurements. Source Measurements which are not listed on or mapped with the Standard Traits..

Table 5. List of Data Sources for Orycteropus afer.
Taxon	Reference	Match	Status
Orycteropus afer	Sponheimer,M., 2001, The oxygen isotope composition of mammalian enamel carbonate from Morea Estate, South Africa, Oecologia	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	McNab,B. K., 1986, The influence of food habits on the energetics of eutherian mammals, Ecological Monographs	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	Damuth, J. 2010. ABSOLUT 6 a mammalian database compiled by the national center for ecological analysis and synthesis (NCEAS ) workshop on mammalian communities.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	Nowak,R. M., 1991, Walker's mammals of the world,	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	Grzimek,B., 2003, Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Mammals I-V,	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	Nowak,R. M., 1991, Walker's mammals of the world,	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	Herberstein, M.E., McLean, D.J., Lowe, E., Wolff, J.O., Khan, M.K., Smith, K., Allen, A.P., Bulbert, M., Buzatto, B.A., Eldridge, M.D. and Falster, D., 2022. AnimalTraits-a curated animal trait database for body mass, metabolic rate and brain size. Scientific Data, 9(1), p.265.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	Engelman, R.K., 2022. Occipital condyle width (OCW) is a highly accurate predictor of body mass in therian mammals. BMC biology, 20(1), p.37.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	Nelson, A., Engelman, R.K. and Croft, D.A., 2023. How to weigh a fossil mammal? South American notoungulates as a case study for estimating body mass in extinct clades. Journal of Mammalian Evolution, 30(3), pp.773-809.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted
Orycteropus afer	Rowan, J., Beaudrot, L., Franklin, J., Reed, K.E., Smail, I.E., Zamora, A. and Kamilar, J.M., 2020. Geographically divergent evolutionary and ecological legacies shape mammal biodiversity in the global tropics and subtropics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(3), pp.1559-1565.	1: Exact Taxon match	Verified - Accepted

Citation for this page: [The MammalBase community 2026. / CC BY 4.0. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7462864 Orycteropus afer , Accessed 16th April 2026 at https://mammalbase.net/me/5308]