Rock hyrax

The rock hyrax (Template:IPAc-en; Procavia capensis), also called dassie, Cape hyrax, rock rabbit, and (from some<ref>Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (Leviticus 11:5)</ref> interpretations of a word used in the King James Bible) coney, is a medium-sized terrestrial mammal native to Africa and the Middle East. Commonly referred to in South Africa as the dassie (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx),<ref name="Britannica" /> it is one of the five living species of the order Hyracoidea, and the only one in the genus Procavia.<ref name =msw3/> Rock hyraxes weigh Template:Convert and have short ears.<ref name="Britannica">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

Rock hyraxes are found at elevations up to Template:Convert above sea level<ref name="Mammalogy">Template:Cite book</ref> in habitats with rock crevices, allowing them to escape from predators.<ref name="Mammalogy"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They are the only extant terrestrial afrotherians in the Middle East.Template:Refn Hyraxes typically live in groups of 10–80 animals, and forage as a group. They have been reported to use sentries to warn of the approach of predators. Having incomplete thermoregulation, they are most active in the morning and evening, although their activity pattern varies substantially with season and climate.

Over most of its range, the rock hyrax is not endangered, and in some areas is considered a minor pest.

Along with other hyrax species and the sirenians, this species is the most closely related to the elephant.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> An unrelated, convergently evolved mammal of similar habits and appearance is the rock cavy of Brazil.

Characteristics

Rock hyraxes are squat and heavily built, with adults reaching a length of Template:Convert and weighing around Template:Convert, with a slight sexual dimorphism, males being about 10% heavier than females. Their fur is thick and grey-brown, although this varies strongly between different environments, from dark brown in wetter habitats, to light gray in desert-living individuals.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Hyrax size (as measured by skull length and humerus diameter) is correlated to precipitation, probably because of the effect on preferred hyrax forage.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Prominent in and apparently unique to hyraxes is the dorsal gland, which excretes an odour used for social communication and territorial marking. The gland is most clearly visible in dominant males.<ref name="Olds"/>

The rock hyrax has a pointed head, short neck, and rounded ears. It has long, black whiskers on its muzzle.<ref name="Living">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The rock hyrax has a prominent pair of long, pointed tusk-like upper incisors, which are reminiscent of the elephant, to which the hyrax is distantly related. The fore feet are plantigrade, and the hind feet are semi-digitigrade. The soles of the feet have large, soft pads that are kept moist with sweat-like secretions. In males, the testes are permanently abdominal, another anatomical feature that hyraxes share with elephants and sirenians.<ref name=Olds>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Thermoregulation in rock hyraxes has been subject to much research, as their body temperature varies with a diurnal rhythm. Animals kept in constant environmental conditions also display such variation,<ref name=Olds /> and this internal mechanism may be related to water balance regulation.<ref>Meltzer, A. (1973) Heat balance and water economy of the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis syriaca Schreber 1784). Unpubl. Ph.D. dissert., Tel-Aviv Univ., Israel, 135 pp.</ref>

• Rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) 2.jpg

  in Namibia

• Procavia capensis 02 MWNH 826.jpg

  Skull of a rock hyrax

• Twohyraxes.jpg

  The dorsal gland visible as a patch of fur with lighter colour

• Hyraxfootcloseup.jpg

  The characteristic foot pads

• Procavia-capensis-Frontal.JPG

  The rock hyrax is a stoutly built, rotund animal.

• Hyrax incisors closeup.jpg

  The unusual incisors

• Cape Hyrax Mt Kenya 2.JPG

  Rock hyrax from Mt Kenya

• Dassie or rock hyrax near Cape Town.jpg

  Dassie near Cape Town

• Rock Hyrax - Procavia Capensis 02.jpg

  Rock hyrax

Distribution and geographic variation

The rock hyrax occurs widely across sub-Saharan Africa in disjunct northern and southern populations; it is absent from the Congo Basin and Madagascar. The distribution encompasses southern Algeria, Libya, Egypt, and the Middle East, with populations in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Arabian Peninsula.<ref name=iucn/> The northern subspecies was introduced to Jebel Hafeet, which is on the border of Oman and the United Arab Emirates.<ref name="Edmonds2006">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The shade of their pelts varies individually and regionally.<ref name="kingd">Template:Cite book</ref> In particular, the dorsal patches (present in both sexes) of the central populations are very variable, ranging from yellow to black, or flecked. In outlying populations, these are more constant in colour, black in P. c. capensis, cream in P. c. welwitschii, and orange in P. c. ruficeps.<ref name="kingd"/> A larger, longer-haired population is abundant in the moraines in the alpine zone of Mount Kenya.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Subspecies

The subspecies, which are sometimes elevated to full species, are:<ref name="kingd"/>

• P. c. capensis (Pallas, 1766) – Cape rock hyrax, native to South Africa and Namibia
• P. c. habessinicus (Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832) – Ethiopian rock hyrax, native to northeastern Africa and Arabia
• P. c. johnstoni Thomas, 1894 – black-necked rock hyrax, native to central and East Africa
• P. c. ruficeps (Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1832) – red-headed rock hyrax, native to the southern Sahara
• P. c. welwitschii (Gray, 1868) – Kaokoveld rock hyrax, native to the Kaokoveld of Namibia

Ecology and behavior

Rock hyraxes build dwelling holes in any type of rock with suitable cavities, such as sedimentary rocks and soil.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In Mount Kenya, rock hyraxes live in colonies comprising an adult male, several adult females, and immatures. They are active during the day, and sometimes during moonlit nights.<ref name=Young1993>Young, T. P., & Matthew, R. E. (1993). Alpine vertebrates of Mount Kenya, with particular notes on the rock hyrax. East Africa Natural History Society.</ref> The dominant male defends and watches over the group. The male also marks his territory.

In Africa, hyraxes are preyed on by leopards, Egyptian cobras, puff adders, rock pythons, caracals, wild dogs, hawks, and owls.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Verreaux's eagle in particular is a specialist hunter of hyraxes.<ref name=estes>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=unwin>Template:Cite book</ref> In Israel, the rock hyrax is reportedly rarely preyed upon by terrestrial predators, as their system of sentries and reliable refuges provides considerable protection. Hyrax remains are almost absent from the droppings of wolves in the Judean Desert.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Feeding and foraging

File:Hyraxchewing.ogv

Hyrax making a chewing motion

Hyraxes feed on a wide variety of plant species, including Lobelia<ref name=Young1993/> and broad-leafed plants.<ref name="Nature">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They also have been reported to eat insects and grubs.<ref name="Living"/> They forage for food up to about 50 m from their refuge, usually feeding as a group and with one or more acting as sentries from a prominent lookout position. On the approach of danger, the sentries give an alarm call, and the animals quickly retreat to their refuge.<ref name="Druce">Template:Cite journal</ref>

They are able to go for many days without water due to the moisture they obtain through their food, but quickly dehydrate under direct sunlight.<ref>African Wildlife Foundation: Hyrax</ref> Despite their seemingly clumsy build, they are able to climb trees (although not as readily as Heterohyrax), and readily enter residential gardens to feed on the leaves of citrus and other trees.

The rock hyrax also makes a loud, grunting sound while moving its jaws as if chewing, and this behaviour may be a sign of aggression. Some authors have proposed that observation of this behavior by ancient Israelites gave rise to the misconception given in Leviticus 11:4–8 that the hyrax chews the cud,<ref name="zootorah" /> but the hyrax is not a ruminant.<ref name=Olds />

Reproduction

File:Suckling rock hyrax, South Africa.jpg

Suckling rock hyrax

Rock hyraxes give birth to two to four young after a gestation period of 6–7 months (long, for their size). The young are well developed at birth with fully opened eyes and complete pelage. Young can ingest solid food after two weeks and are weaned at 10 weeks. After 16 months, they become sexually mature, they reach adult size at 3 years, and they typically live about 10 years.<ref name=Olds /> During seasonal changes, the weight of the male reproductive organs (testes, seminal vesicles) changes due to sexual activity. Between May and January in Cape Province, South Africa, the males are inactive sexually. From February onward, the weight of these organs increases dramatically and the males are able to copulate.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Social behavior

Group structure

Hyraxes that live in more "egalitarian" groups, in which social associations are spread more evenly among group members, survive longer.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In addition, hyraxes are the first nonhuman species in which structural balance was described. They follow "the friend of my friend is my friend" rule, and avoid unbalanced social configurations.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The balance of social interactions within a group is positively correlated to individual longevity, meaning that "it is not the number or strength of associations that an adult individual has (i.e. centrality) that is important, but the overall configuration of social relationships within the group."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> The reason for such a balanced group configuration, rather than one that is centrally dominated by a few individual hyraxes, was suggested to have to do with the fact that information flow to all members is important in a fragmented habitat as that of the hyrax, making a dominance hierarchy a liability for the survival of the group at large.<ref name=":0" />

Vocalisations

Captive rock hyraxes make more than 20 different noises and vocal signals.<ref name=Young1993/> The most familiar one is a high trill, given in response to perceived danger.<ref name="Living"/> Rock hyrax calls can provide important biological information, such as size, age, social status, body weight, condition, and hormonal state of the caller, as determined by measuring their call length, patterns, complexity, and frequency.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> More recently, researchers have found rich syntactic structure and geographical variations in the calls of rock hyraxes, a first in the vocalization of mammalian taxa other than primates, cetaceans, and bats.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Higher-ranked males tend to sing more often, and the energetic cost of singing is relatively low.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A recent study found that snorts, a rare aspect of male hyrax songs, play an important signalling role as well, with increasing snort harshness being associated with "the progression of inner excitement or aggression". It is also positively associated with the singing animal's social status and testosterone levels.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Singing has also been shown to be a marker of an individual hyrax's unique identity, where identity is expressed by unique vocal signatures "that are not condition dependent and are stable over years in singers that did not alter their spatial position."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Resting

The rock hyrax spends roughly 95% of its time resting.<ref name="Olds" /> During this time, it can often be seen basking in the sun, which sometimes involves "heaping", where several animals pile on top of each other. This is thought to be an element of its complex thermoregulation.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Dispersal

Male hyraxes have been categorised into four classes: territorial, peripheral, early dispersers, and late dispersers. The territorial males are dominant. Peripheral males are more solitary and sometimes take over a group when the dominant male is missing. Early-dispersing males are juveniles that leave the birth site around 16 to 24 months of age. Late dispersers are also juvenile males, but they leave the birth site much later, around 30 or more months of age.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Names

The species is known as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in Afrikaans (etymology: rock + badger),Template:Cn while most people just call them "dassies" (the plural of dassie) or "rock rabbits" in South Africa. The Swahili names for them are {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, though the latter two names are nowadays reserved for the tree hyraxes.<ref>Template:Cite Americana</ref> This species has many subspecies, many of which are also known as rock or Cape hyrax, although the former usually refers to African varieties.

In Arabic, the rock hyrax is called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Transliteration) or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (Template:Transliteration). In Hebrew, the rock hyrax is called {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), meaning rock shafan, where the meaning of shafan is obscure, but is colloquially used as a synonym for rabbit in modern Hebrew.<ref name="zootorah">Template:Cite book</ref> According to Gerald Durrell, local people in Bafut, Cameroon, call the rock hyrax the n'eer.<ref name="gerald durrell baf beagles">Template:Cite book</ref>

Naturopathic use

Rock hyraxes produce large quantities of hyraceum, a sticky mass of dung and urine that has been employed as a South African folk remedy in the treatment of several medical disorders, including epilepsy and convulsions.<ref>Olsen, A., Prinsloo, L. C., Scott, L., Jägera, A, K. (2008) "Hyraceum, the fossilized metabolic product of rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis), shows GABA-benzodiazepine receptor affinity". South African Journal of Science 103.</ref> Hyraceum is now being used by perfumers, who tincture it in alcohol to yield a natural animal musk.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In culture

The rock hyrax is classified as treif (not kosher; unclean) according to kashrut – Jewish food hygiene rules – due to statements in the Old Testament in Leviticus 11:5: "And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you".<ref>Leviticus 11:4–5; Deuteronomy 14:7</ref> Hyraxes are also mentioned in Proverbs 30:26 as one of a number of remarkable animals for being small but exceedingly wise, in this case because "the conies are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs".<ref>Prov 30:26, KJB</ref>

In Joy Adamson's books and the film Born Free, a rock hyrax called Pati-Pati was her companion for six years before Elsa and her siblings came along; Pati-Pati reportedly took the role of nanny and watched over them with great care.<ref>Adamson, J. (1961). Elsa – The Story Of A Lioness, London: Collins & Harvill Press. P. 3.</ref>

The 2013 animated film Khumba features a number of rock hyraxes that sacrifice one of their own to a white Verreaux's eagle.

Gallery

• Hyrax on the Rocks.JPG

  Rock hyrax can reach a length of Template:Convert and weigh around Template:Convert.

• Dassie 2.jpg

  Basking on Table Mountain, South Africa

• Klipdas Betty's Bay.jpg

  Klipdassie in Betty's Bay, South Africa

• Hyrax colony.jpg

  A colony of hyraxes in northern Israel

• Dassie southafrica.JPG

  Rock hyrax in the botanical garden of Pretoria, South Africa

• Collar tagged Rock Hyrax.JPG

  Collar-tagged rock hyrax, Ein Gedi, Israel

• Klippschliefer schaedel.gif

  Animated skull, Namibia

• Procavia capensis syriaca.jpg

  Rock hyrax, Katzrin, Golan Heights

• Rock hyrax running.jpg

  Rock hyrax, running, Ein Gedi

• Rock hyrax at Cape of Good Hope.jpg

  Rock hyrax (dassie) at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

• Dassie (rock hyrax), South Africa.jpg

  Dassie with young in Hermanus, South Africa

• RockHyraxesAtEinGedi.jpg

  Rock hyrax showing incisors and tongue, at Ein Gedi, Israel

• Rock Hyrax - Singapore Zoo.png

  Rock hyrax pictured at Singapore Zoo

See also

• Template:Portal-inline

External links

• Animal Diversity: Procavia capensis
• View the hyrax genome on Ensembl
• Cute dassie on Table Mountain
• Template:UCSC genomes
• More information and photos of rock hyraxes in Mt Kenya