Rising temperatures threaten heat-tolerant aardvarks

When nocturnal aardvarks start sunbathing, something’s wrong.

If the animals are desperate enough to bask like some cold, sluggish turtle, it’s because they’ve got the chills. Robyn Hetem, an ecophysiologist, has the body temperature data to prove it — collected from late 2012 into 2013, the hottest summer the arid Kalahari region in South Africa had seen in more than 30 years.