Photo of the Day #571: Rock hyrax

i-5fabaa24ed21f3381603069048db6b6d-National Zoo 03-22-09 269.JPG


A rock hyrax (Procavia capensis), photographed at the National Zoo.


More like this

"I bid you velcome to my humble abode -- Bleh eh eh eh!"

By Stevo Darkly (not verified) on 04 May 2009 #permalink

Not to be confused with its rather rarer relative, the jazz hyrax.

I'd like to have a time machine so I could observe the time in earth history when hyraxes were more diverse, more terrestrial, and much bigger (reaching rhinoceros proportions, I'm told!)

By Raymond Minton (not verified) on 05 May 2009 #permalink

This follows after the elephant, I saw these in Zimbabwe and was told they are the closest living relative of the elephant, their skulls show the similarity. If this is so, might not these be tusks?