There’s a Dassie on my Stoep

Writer Dr Anina Lee

Everybody loves a dassie. Most of us would be delighted to have one on our stoep. Dassies are also called rock hyraxes or Procavia (‘before rodent’) capensis (‘of the Cape’). We love the photographs of people feeding them at Gearing’s Point, even though we know it’s wrong to feed any wild animal. Is it because they are round and furry, or because we know what fascinating creatures they are?

Is it because we can hardly believe the assertions that the closest relative to a dassie is an elephant? Indeed, despite the enormous difference in size between the two, research has claimed the dassie is the African Elephant’s closest living relative. To understand this, we have to look back in time. A 60 million-year-old skull dug up in Morocco has been identified as the earliest form of elephant species – and a common ancestor of the dassie.

This creature did not have a trunk, measured less than 50 cm from tip to tail and weighed just 5 kg, much the size of a modern dassie. It had front incisors which jutted out of its mouth to form the forerunner of modern tusks. Analysis of the teeth in the skull proved it was related, however distantly, to the modern elephant. The dassie has two upper incisor teeth which, like the elephant’s, grow for life. In males these are triangular (those of females are rounded) and very sharp. So don’t be fooled by its cuddly looks into trying to pet one.

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