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Rock Hyrax — printable fact sheet
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Rock Hyrax
Procavia capensis
Procavia capensis looks like a fat guinea pig and is in fact one of the closest living relatives of the elephant and the manatee — all three sit in Afrotheria, and the hyrax's tusk-like upper incisors, which grow continuously, are homologous with an elephant's tusks. Its feet sh…
Did you know?
- Rock hyraxes have an unusual thermoregulation system and do not maintain a constant body temperature throughout the day.
- Hyraceum is also used as a fixative in perfumery, and it is one of the very few animal excretions with a commercial fragrance application. Rock hyrax males sing songs whose complexity predicts their reproductive success, and the songs are composed of ordered element types — one of the clearest cases of syntax outside birds and cetaceans. The hyrax has a gestation of around seven to eight months, extraordinarily long for a 4 kg animal, and another echo of its elephant kinship; the young are born fully furred and active.
What I learned
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