| “ | Ants? What are ants? | „ |
| ~ Alan, with amnesia about the ants. |
Alan
Alan the Aardvark is an aardvark who lives in the African landscape. He is shown to have a large fond of many types of ants he encounters in Africa.
Physical Appearance
As his name suggests, Alan has very long ears, a long, narrow, pointed snout, a long tail, and four legs with hoof-like claws resembling that of a real-life aardvark. He also has a light brown coloration around his body.
Personality
Most occasions often show Alan being fond of ants; however, he is not fond of grapes that much. Although rather shy, Alan occasionally uses his own snout as an instrument (specifically in a trumpet-like style) - particularly during concert events or the like.
In spite of this, Alan is also an ant naturalist occasionally giving out information about ants where he would talk to a character about these species. When talking, Alan would say about how many types one can find in the African landscape (specifically about a thousand species found in it). When talking about this, a character would occasionally find Alan's conversation uncomfortable with the latter being a chatterbox. In spite of having a fondness of ants, Alan is also capable of taking care of termites (as revealed in "The Story of Eddie's Big Adventure").
Appearances
Season 1
- The Story of Herbert the Warthog (debut)
- The Story of Esmeralda the Snake
- The Story of Eddie's Big Adventure
- The Story of Herbert's Birthday Party
Season 2
- The Story of Herbert and the Watermelon of Doom (no lines)
- The Story of Alan the Aardvark
- The Story of Nathalie's Neighbours
- The Story of the Hyenas' Holiday
- The Story of Herbert's Peaceful Day (indirect reference only)
Season 3
- The Story of Georgina, Queen of Fashion (unheard cheering lines only)
- The Story of Toby's New House
- The Story of Alan's Catchy Tune
- The Story of Herbert's Watermelons (music reference only)
- The Story of Doris's Precious Things (reference only)
Season 4
- The Story of the End of the Rainy Season Clean
- The Story of the Savannah Craze
- The Story of the Jungle Ball (trumpeting sounds only)
- The Story of Alan's Scooter
Books
- Zed the Zebra (no lines)
Other Appearances
- 64 Zoo Lane Theme Song (Seasons 3-4 only; no lines)
Gallery
Animation
Trivia
- It is assumed Alan can eat all types of ants. In real-life, some ants are very harmful to aardvarks. These types are African driver ants and red ants.
- Although Alan states that there are 1,000 types of ants in Africa, there actually 2,000 species of ants in Africa in real life.
- Though Alan uses his snout as a trumpet, aardvarks are usually quiet and rarely make grunting noises.
- Alan is wide awake, despite that his real-life counterpart is nocturnal. In Episode 25, one can tell that Alan is usually sleeping. Possibly, Nelson accidentally grabbed Alan who was sleeping.
- Alan's trumpet sound has a different tune in Season 3 and 4.
- He replaces Pauline in the Season 3-4 intro. This is possibly because the animation assets for Pauline in Season 3 were not made around the time the season was in production and the part where she lands and dances would be difficult to animate in Adobe Flash.
- In other languages, Alan is mistranslated as an anteater. However, in the Brazilian version, Alan is mistranslated as a tamandua, a type of anteater in Central and South America, thus the Portuguese word for the specie. This is incorrect, as an aardvark lives in Africa, since an anteater does not appear in Africa in real life. However, both species are capable of eating ants and other insects.