Chris, Solara, and Martin were cruising the African savannah looking for creature burrows.

All was well until they came across a mud wallow.

Martin thought they were going to clear the jump until Chris activated the glider feature on the Createrra, allowing them to clear the landing.

"Aw, come on, Chris!" Martin groaned playfully as they continued driving. "We could've made the landing."

His twin sister laughed and said, "I don't know about you, Martin, but I'm not really in the mood for getting stuck in mud wallows yet. We can play in the mud, later, after we map out all of the creatures that live in holes on our master map."

Chris chuckled and added, "You're right, Solara."

Before they could go any further, one of the tires got stuck in a burrow!

"Uh oh! Do we have time to fix a tire?" Martin joked as he backed the Createrra out.

"It's okay, Martin. At least you found our first hole." Solara pointed out, trying to cheer up her twin brother.

The three siblings got out of the Createrra and decided to find out just who was living in the burrow.

"Hello? Anybody home~~" Martin called into the hole, only for the three of them to get a faceful of dirt.

"Gritty!" "Muddy!" "Sandy!"

"Who's that digger?" the three siblings asked in unison.

What came out of the burrow answered their question.

An aardvark and her baby!

"An aardvark!" Martin said as he recognized the creature.

"And her baby!" Chris added.

"Aww, he's so cute!" Solara cooed as she skated over to the burrow.

"Eclipse, this is a great way to start out our burrow hunt. Almost nobody even sees the aardvark and her baby." Martin told his younger twin sister.

"Whoa, guys! Check out the claws. Front paws scoop the dirt out, back paws push the dirt away, and the tail scrabbles the dirt flat. And the claws are so thick that they don't break ." the second eldest Kratt sibling informed.

Now it was time to inform the crew of their first burrow.

"Come in, Tortuga HQ." Chris called into his creaturepod.

"Any luck with the burrows, guys?" Aviva asked after she answered the call.

"Great luck! We've just come across an aardvark and her baby. And another burrow is being built right now! Sending the coordinates now."

"We've got it, Chris!" Aviva replied after the coordinates appeared on the master map.

Koki, on the other hand, was confused.

"Okay, so this is a hard what?" she asked in confusion.

Solara lightly laughed and corrected her.

"Aardvark. It's an aardvark." she explained while chuckling.

"Got it. Aardvark. Never heard of it." Koki replied pulling up a real life image of an aardvark digging a burrow.

"Even though they're nicknamed 'earth pigs', aardvarks are actually more closely related to elephants," Chris informed the group. "With claws as strong as a pickax."

Jimmy Z was amazed. "I never knew fingernails could build a house!" he said while admiring his nails.

All this talk about aardvarks and their digging power was giving Aviva a great idea for a new creature power suit.

"She's got beautiful fingernails. And so thick, they don't break. Brother and Sister Kratt, get ready to have the most gorgeous nails around," Aviva announced as she skated over to her station and started programming some creature powers.

Martin, Solara, and Chris were confused when Aviva said 'gorgeous nails' instead of digging power.

"Gorgeous nails? Don't you mean digging power?" Martin asked, smiling.

That's what Aviva meant by 'gorgeous nails'.

"Yep, that's what I said," Aviva explained as she typed on her computer. "Gorgeous nails. I'm getting to work on programming aardvark powers for the creature power suits. Zap out."

With that, Aviva ended the call.

But before the three siblings could continue, they heard a cruel laughing sound.

"Did anyone else hear someone laughing or was it just me?" Solara asked nervously.

"Yeah, it wasn't just you, Eclipse." Chris agreed.

"I like laughing as much as you guys do, but not that kind." Martin chimed in.

Then, the sound was heard again.

"Nope, nothing funny about that." Solara agreed, her emerald eyes widening in fear.

It was a spotted hyena making that sound!

"Spotted hyena! Uh oh. Hyenas are serious predators for lots of creatures out here, including aardvarks!" Chris said looking at the mother aardvark.

"She can't get back to her burrow! So it's Plan B: Dig an escape hole. Aardvarks can do that in five minutes flat." Martin explained as they watched from behind a nearby pile of dirt.

"It was a good thing that she had a head start." Solara added.

The hyena was advancing on the mother aardvark, and the escape hole wasn't deep enough yet!

"Oh no! It's not deep enough yet! She's got to buy herself time!" Chris said.

Then, the mother aardvark used her claws to slash at the hyena.

Every slash made the hyena back up and allowed the aardvark to make her hole deeper.

"Those claws are good for something other than digging. The slash defense!" Chris said in amazement.

Her baby was so so scared that she ran into Solara's backpack.

The mother aardvark slashed at the hyena again and this time, the claws connected to the hyena's face!

Solara winced for the hyena.

"The hyena didn't like that one bit!"

While the hyena was distracted, the mother aardvark managed to make her hole deep enough and escaped.

"Yes, she did it!" Chris cheered, until they heard the hyena growling at them.

"Now I know why holes are so important around here..." Martin said.

"Safety!" The three siblings yelled in unison as they ran back to the Createrra, until Solara fell over from trying to grab her backpack.

"Whoa, this backpack's a lot heavier when I'm running from a hyena!" she said, skating over to the Createrra and climbing in.

"That was a close one!" Martin exhaled as they drove away.

"Right. Especially since my backpack almost knocked me over. Did one of you boys slip some of your stuff in there while my back was turned?" Solara teased, raising her eyebrow.

"No," her brothers replied.

"Then why did it feel like it was full of bricks? You didn't put your fossil collection in my bag, did you, little brother?" Solara asked her younger brother.

"Uh-uh. I left my fossil collection in my room back at the Tortuga, remember?" Chris reminded his siblings before a narrow, pink appendage found its way onto Solara Belle's face.

"Uh, guys? I think there's a snake on my face..." Solara said as she tried not to laugh.

"Oh, yeah, there sure is. Now which pink snales do I know? Blind pink snakes, but they're from Madagascar. So it can't be one of those..." Martin muttered to himself.

"Martin, while we're talking, can you get it off of me?" Solara asked, until the appendage led to the baby aardvark on her backpack.

Martin laughed, "It's you! That is one long, slurpy tongue. I'm gonna call you 'Slurpy'!"

"Hey there, sweetie. How did she get into my backpack?" Solara asked, looking at her brothers as she picked up the baby aardvark.

Chris answered, "Must've gotten confused during that hyena attack and thought it was a hole."

Martin declared, "We've got to get her back to where she belongs. Got to get her home."

They turned the Createrra around and started looking for Slurpy's home.

On another part of the African savannah, Zach Varmitech was trying to have his Zach-bots dig a pool for him, but not with much luck.

"Oh, hurry up!" Zach cried from his sun chair. "I'm boiling out here! I told you if I'm going to survive out here, I need that pool dug by midday. Ugh, I despise being out on these animal collection trips. But how else am I going to find animals to turn into robots?"

"Hold up, Martin!" Solara's voice rang out from close by.

Zach gained a thoughtful look on his face as he had a new idea for a new animal robot.

"Hmm. Sounds like those animal loving Wild Kratts. And lovely Solara~~"



Zach swooned at the mention of Chris's big sister and quietly followed them to a patch of bushes.

Solara sat with one leg over the other on the Createrra and brainstormed with her brothers.

"Okay, according to my master map, the best digger in the world's home should be right around here."

That piqued Zach's interest.

"Best digger? That's the kind of animal I need working for me! Alright, Zachbots, stay close. Ahh! Not that close..." Zach groaned as his robots piled on top of him, knocking him out of the bushes.

This caught the attention of the Kratt Trio, who looked at Zach with varying looks of annoyance and amusement.

"Zach, what are you doing here?" Martin asked with a laugh.

"Spying on us again?" Solara smirked with hands on her hips.

Zach stood up and brushed the dirt off of himself. "No, I'm just.. I took a wrong turn in my jet. I was just leaving."

Slurpy poked his head out of the truck, only for Martin to push it back down. "Well, okay, then. Oh, hey, look at the time. Got a head poppin- I mean, gotta head out!"

Martin was nervous as he spoke.

"Uh, yeah, have a good trip back!"

With that said, all three Kratt siblings hopped in the Createrra and drove off.

Now that they were gone, Zach could start scheming.

"Okay, you heard him. Holes. Thats were I can get a varmint that'll dig my pool for me. Check sone holes!"

Unfortunately, the Zach-bots didn't get the memo, and checked Zach's ear and nose holes.

"No, not ear holes! Holes in the ground! Bring me some diggers!"

With the Kratt Trio, Chris was checking the master map for Slurpy's home.

"Well, thanks to my map, I know exactly where Slurpy's home is. Right here." They pulled up at hole from the hyena attack.

Martin added, "That's it alright!"

Solara felt skeptical. "Don't be too sure about that, boys. I have a feeling that your about to get an unexpected surprise in 3...2...1..."

Chris and Martin didn't hear her and as soon as she said '1', a warthog booted Martin out of the hole.

"Aah, warthog!" Martin screamed as he landed nearby.

"Excuse me, warthog?" Chris was confused. Their sister, on the other hand, was in stitches.

The warthog glared at them.

"What! A warthog lives here? But that doesn't make any sense!"

Then, the gravity of the situation sunk in.

"Oh, no.. Then,"

"Where's Slurpy's mom?"

Chris was still fretting over the map. "This doesn't make any sense. I'm sure I marked it down right!"

Martin was sitting on the hood of the Createrra with Solara, chuckling.

"Well, you must've made some kind of mistake. Because this definitely isn't Slurpy's mom. Unless she grew tusks and a bunch of warts recently."

Solara just gave Chris a sideways tlance and deadpanned, "I told you so."

Then, two warthog piglets ran outside the burrow.

"Look, piglets!"

"Aww, they're so cute."

The two piglets nuzzled their mom, making Slurpy whine sadly.

Eclipse cradled Slurpy in her arms and crooned softly, "Don't worry, Ninã. We'll find your Mommy. We'll scour the neighborhood, go burrow to burrow until we find her."

Martin added, "Yeah, Slurpy. We'll get you home."

Chris adjusted the map and changed the icon from an aardvark to a warthog. "Okay, I'm remarking this hole as warthog. And from now on, no mistakes."

Then, the mother warthog started snorting and raised her tail like a flag. Her piglets followed suit and ran into the burrow.

"Look at that," Martin observed. "She's holding her tail straight up in the air."

"It's like a flag, telling her piglets to follow."

The piglets, in their hurry to get to the burrow, trampled Martin and Chris.

"They usually only do that when danger's around." Martin said.

Chris started, "Yeah, there must be-"

He was cut off by a loud roar. It was a lion running towards them!

"A LION!!"

"To the underground!"

Solara called Aviva as she carried Slurpy in her arms. "Vivita, are those hole-digging suits done yet?"

Sbe was skates as fast as she could and there were no holes in sight.

"Not yet, Eclipse! You three will have to find a hole that's already dug!" Aviva replied.

All three of them dove headfirst into two holes as the lion scratched at the entrance.

Meanwhile with Zach, he was clad in a swimsuit and sitting on his slide.

"Ugh!" Zach groaned. "Where are my Zach-bots? I'm hot and I wanna swim in my pool!"

As soon as he said that, two Zach-bots appeared with a bag.

"Oh, finally! What varmint did you bring me?"

The Zach-bot dropped the bag and a warthog appeared.

"Eww! Well, you don't have to be pretty! You just have to dig me a pool. Now, get to it. What's wrong with you? Come on, you live in holes, don't you? So, dig! Dig, warty thing!"

The warthog just popped Zach's pool floatie.

"That's not what I had in mind.."

With the Kratt siblings, Martin made a makeshift flag with his glove and a stick and waved it outside the hole. He poked his head out and looked around before exhaling in relief.

"Lion's gone."

Chris, Slurpy, and Eclipse poked their heads out of their holes, when Eclipse noticed claw marks in the dirt.

"Hmm, claw scrapes. And they look about aardvark size." she said and scanned them with her creaturepod.

It was a match.

"It's a match. An aardvark dug this hole."

"Alright, Slurpy, we just found your mom. What luck. I'll head down the back door," Martin said before diving into another hole.

Eclipse decided to stay outside and look after Slurpy.

Inside the burrow, Martin checked what animal it was, only to be surprised yet again.

"I don't believe it!"

"What, we found her?" Chris asked.

"Only if she has a beak and goes-"

"QUACK!"

"A duck? A South African shelduck, living underground?"

The mother duck was incubating her clutch of eggs.

"Amazing! I never knew shelducks laid their eggs underground!"

"Wait a second. But there's no way she could've dug this hole, bot with those webbed feet."

Then, she sat on her nest again.

"Yeah, and warthogs can't dig either. Not with those itty-bitty piggy hooves they have."

"So, who's digging holes for them?"

Martin emerged from the hole, only to get a faceful of dirt.

"Aardvarks!" he laughed.

Now it all clicked.

"Of course! The aardvarks dig their holes and then when they leave, other non-digging animals move in and make it home," Chris said as he emerged from his hole.

Solara came up and stated, "I've  been trying to tell you that all day, Chris. Well, in any case, we know what we have to do now: Keep checking aardvark holes. Slurpy's mom has to be in one of them."

At the Tortuga, Koki was keeping track of the holes.

"Built by aardvark, home of duck."

"Ah! Python lives in this one!" Chris yelped as a rock python constricted around him.

"Built by aardvark, home of python."

"Ow! African crested porcupine over here!" Martin yelped, jumping out of a hole with quills stuck to him.

"Oh! Spotted hyena! Even the aardvark's worst enemy move into aardvark dens to have their cubs," said Chris as he pet the baby hyena.

He was cut off by his sister yelling, "Oh, brother, not again!" as she skated past him.

"Whoa!"

The hyena from earlier started chasing them again.

"Built by aardvark, home of spotted hyena. Unbelievable!"

"Aardvarks are so cool. They're the burrow builers of Africa.  Who knew so many creatures depended on them?" Aviva asked.

"Uh, Aviva, I know a couple of guys who are depending on us." Jimmy reminded her pointing at the screen.

"Not to interrupt, but we could use a little digging help, Aviva! Yikes!" Solara yelled as the trio continued to run from the hyena.

"Oops,  sorry.  Got to get back to those power suit discs"

With Zach....

"Let me get this straight: You brought me another creature that lives in a hole, right? So, a creature that lives in holes must be able to dig, right? Then why? Won't? It? DIG?!" Zach yelled as he pointed at the shelduck. "Ugh!!"

"Oh, what?! Do you need a shovel? Search more holes, find me a varmint that digs!" he ordered.

Back with the Kratt Siblings...

"23 aardvark holes, and we still haven't found Slurpy's mom.." Martin moped as he and Chris leaned on a termite mound.

"We've just got to find her. Ow!" Chris yelped, brushing his pants off.

" Oh, don't beat yourself up about it, Chris. Ow!"

The two brothers looked down and saw what but them: Termites.

"Termites!"