Where are hyraxes found?
Rock hyraxes live throughout much of Africa and in Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and the Sinai and Arabian Peninsulas in rocky, scrub-covered areas. They have very good sight and hearing. In the wild, rock hyraxes primarily feed on vegetation and are grazers and browsers.
Where are dassies found?
Dassies can be found through most of southeast Africa and the Middle East on rocky outcrops and cliffs. Their habitat ranges from sea level to over 4000m (on Mount Kenya).
Are there Quokkas in South Africa?
Quokkas are well known for their friendly antics, hopping up to Rottnest Island tourists, peering into a phone and smiling goofily for the best selfie ever.
Are dassies friendly?
Unlike the friendly quokkas, which pose calmly in selfies, Cape Town dassies are violent and aggressive. An Australian backpacker has been left disfigured after mistaking a dassie on Table Mountain for a quokka. Unlike the friendly quokkas, which pose calmly in selfies, Cape Town dassies are violent and aggressive.
What does a hyraxes look like?
What is a hyrax? The hyrax is also called rock rabbit or dassie, is a small furry mammal. It looks like a robust, oversized guinea pig, or a rabbit with rounded ears and no tail. Hyraxes have stumpy toes with hoof-like nails; and four toes on each front foot and three on each back foot.
What can I feed a dassie?
Dassies eat a wide variety of vegetation, including grasses, forbs, shrubs and the leaves of trees. They will eat plants that have very aromatic leaves and even some that are toxic to other animals.
How do I get rid of dassie?
The only way to deal with dassies was to kill them manually with rifles and hounds, or to lay poisoned grain, which could harm livestock as well.
What is a dassie in South Africa?
Rock Hyrax (Dassie) The rock hyrax is commonly known as a ‘dassie’ in South Africa, and occurs widely across the country.
Why are dassies important to the environment?
Dassies provide a food source for some predators that are important for ecotourism such as leopards, wild dogs and raptors. Dassies are eaten by people in much of Africa but this is not well documented.
What is the lifespan of a dassies?
Dassies have an average life span of 10 years and they become sexually mature at about 16 to 17 months. Females have two or three babies, which they carry for about 230 days. The babies are born in September or October in the Western Cape, and in December to February further north.
What does a dassie look like?
The rough coat is brownish-grey with lighter patches above the eyes and a patch of long, black hairs in the centre of the back. The dassie is considered to be the closest living relative of the largest land mammal, the African elephant, and also of the manatee and dugong. The most convincing evidence for these relationships is based on DNA.