The animal was wrongly blamed for livestock deaths in the Okatyali Constituency.

The aardwolf is in fact a harmless animal, says Mike Griffin, environmental scientist with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

"They don't cause any damage to farmers".

Weighing only 10kg, compared to 45-75kg of a hyena, the aardwolf only feeds on termites and other insects.

It is impossible for them to kill livestock, such as goats.

Griffin says they do have "nice canine teeth", but would not kill livestock for food reasons.

"They are not able to chew meat".

The only time an aardwolf would attack a goat is when it is suffering from rabies.

The reason why there was a general misconception among farmers that the aardwolf kill livestock is because they are often seen at carcasses.

"They are attracted to carcasses because they know they might find insects there".

As large consumers of termites the aardwolf is more of an asset to farmers than a threat at all, according to Griffin.

He said a study on termites completed in the Ganab area in the Namib desert found they eat more grass than gemsbok.

"Having aardwolf around would mean more grazing for livestock," he explains.

An aardwolf can consume as much as 200 000 termites in one night.

Termites are unable to tolerate light, and come out in the late afternoon to evening in dense columns when aardwolves lap them up with their long sticky tongues.

The aardwolf is a protected species in Namibia.

Its conservation status is vulnerable.

Some people living in areas near the Namib desert, where aardwolves are most common, kill them to eat them.

As a protected species the MET could charge the farmers who killed the aardwolf in the Oshana region.

Griffin said these cases were difficult as the court would have to prove they were killing indiscriminately.

There is a provision in the law that gives farmers the right to kill predators when their livestock are endangered by them.

The Oshana farmers could get away with that argument as they were under the impression that it was the aardwolf that killed their goats, said Griffin.

Aardwolves have a light buff colour coat with an orange tint, and stripes with dark brown bands.

The fur is long and coarse, with bushy tails and a mane or crest along their backs which becomes erect when frightened.

Aardwolf, which means "earthwolf" in Afrikaans, is so named because they live in underground burrows.

Griffin did not know the population of the aardwolf in Namibia as no census had been done on them.

The third member of the hyena family is the strandwolf with a weight of 45kg.

They mainly eat bait, wild fruit, insects and eggs.

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