Skip to content

What Are Hyraxes?

Hyraxes are small and rotund herbivorous mammals. They belong to the Procaviidae family, within the Hyracoidea order. Together with elephants and sirenians (manatees and dugongs), they belong to the Paenungulatomorpha clade. So, believe it or not, these small animals are close relatives of the mighty elepant!

There are six species, which are placed in three genera. These are Southern three hyrax Dendrohyrax arboreus arboreus, Eastern three hyrax Dendrohyrax arboreus validus, Western three hyrax Dendrohyrax dorsalis, Benin three hyrax Dendrohyrax interfluvialis, Yellow-spotted rock hyrax (or bush hyrax) Heterohyrax brucei and Rock hyrax Procavia capensis.

Appearance

Hyraxes look like a cross between a rat and a quokka, and about the size of a housecat. They lack a tail.
They have short fur, which is is either sandy colored or grayish-brown. They can also have a lighter colored belly and chest, and have lighter colored markings on the snout and above the eyes. The fur can also be ticked. Hyraxes either have a darker or lighter colored spot on their back (may be species-based), and exactly where their dorsal gland is located.

Their ears are small and rounded, and they have very dark eyes. They have long whiskers. Whiskers can be found on their entire body.

Hyraxes have four toes on their front paws, and three toes on their hindfeet. They have flattened, hoof-like nails on all toes, except for the inner hindfoot toe, which looks more like a claw. The soles on their paws and feet are rubbery and moist, and can be used as suction cups when climbing steep rocks or trees. Their incisor teeth form small tusks. These tusks are pointy and can be seen sticking out from under the upper lip in most animals. The front teet in the lower jaw point foreward and are distinctively grooved like a comb. Hyraxes either use these combteeth or the longer claw on their hindfeet for grooming or to scratch themselves when they're itchy.

Female hyraxes have four teats. One pair near their armpits, the other pair located in their groin. Unlike other mammals, male hyraxes have their testes located inside their body, near their kidneys.

Behavior

Hyraxes are highly social animals and they live in groups. A group exist of one leading male and several females and lower ranking males. The leading male defends his territory from other groups.
The animals either are basking in the sun, sleeping or eating. Pups are somewhat more active than adults and they like to play with each other, or annoy their parents or other adult group members.

Diet

Hyraxes are browsers and when eating, they rip off leaves with their cheek teeth, instead of their front teeth (as seen in ungulates). They eat leaves from many plant species. Though, not being able to regurgitate food, they have a specialized, multi-chambered stomach with symbiotic bacteria that aid them in digesting plants.
They can't digest their food as good as ungulates.

Reproduction

The gestation period of hyraxes is around 7 or 8 months... which is quite long for such a small animal! Females usually have up to three pups.
Pups are born with ears and eyes already open and they're able to run around not long after birth. They're weaned when they're 1 to 5 months old, and sexually matured around 16 or 17 months old.

Habitat And Status

Hyraxes live in Africa. The rock hyrax can also be found in the Middle-East. They are listed as 'Least Concern'.

Relation With Humans

Given they're so popular at the moment, hyraxes may be loved by many. However, in some parts of Africa, people view them as pests. They're hunted and eaten in the Middle-East. Hyraxes like to crawl into into cars for warmt. They ofen crawl close to the car's engine and can get seriously injured or killed once the engine is started. Some people seem to keep hyraxes as pets.

Trivia

  • They're called 'klipdassie', or simply 'dassie' in Afrikaans (a language spoken in South-Africa). They're called 'klipdas' in dutch language (my native language). Afrikaans makes use of many dutch words, which is why the name of this animal sound so similar in both languages. Literally translated to english, klipdas means 'cliff badger' XD
  • Hyraxes have become popular because of a YouTube video that shows a bush hyrax screaming 'awawa'.
  • First time I heard about hyraxes, was when I saw an Ice Age movie which features them. I thought they were weird fantasy creatures that only existed in the Ice Age movie universe, until I came across a picture of a hyrax some years ago. My reaction was "They're actual animals?!". He-he, always fun to learn that thought-to-be-fake species are actually real.
  • They like to stack upon each other, form lines or pinwheel shapes when huddling.
  • My oc's, Kagiso (ka-HEE-so) and Upendo (oo-PEH-ndaw), are both a bush hyrax.
  • Hyraxes are mentioned in the Bible. Though, not actually as hyrax, but as 'coney', 'daman' or 'rock rabbit'. I'm not religious, but I do find this interesting and fun to know.