Animal Diversity Web

Hyraxes, also known as dassies or conies, are jack-rab­bit sized an­i­mals with short tails and pe­cu­liar, 3-toed hind feet with al­most hoof-like nails on two of the toes (the inner toe has a claw). The forefeet have 5 toes. The soles of their fore- and hind­feet, which are moist­ened by spe­cial sweat glands, are re­mark­ably soft and elas­tic, which works to in­crease their fric­tion against the sub­strate. They have spe­cial­ized mus­cles in the soles of the feet that help them to work al­most like a suc­tion cup. The feet of hyraxes are mesax­onic, mean­ing that the plane of sym­me­try of the foot goes through the third digit. In this they re­sem­ble peris­so­dactyls.

The skulls of hyraxes have a short ros­trum, promi­nent pos­tor­bital processes that form a pos­tor­bital bar, small bul­lae, a large jugal that con­tributes to the gle­noid fossa, and a broad plate-like an­gu­lar re­gion of the mandible. Hyraxes have a sin­gle in­cisor on each side of the upper jaw (two on the lower), fol­lowed by a di­astema -- an arrange­ment that looks very ro­dent-like. Like those of ro­dents, the in­cisors of hyraxes grow con­tin­u­ously and have enamel only on the an­te­rior sur­face, cre­at­ing a self-sharp­en­ing, chisel-like cut­ting edge. The mo­lars have strongly de­vel­oped lophs, as is com­mon in species with her­biv­o­rous diets. The den­tal for­mula is 1/2, 0/0, 4/4, 3/3 = 34.

Hyra­coids are usu­ally grouped with ele­phants and sire­ni­ans as "sub­un­gu­lates," and they all may have all de­scended from a com­mon stock

The diet of hyraxes con­sists mostly of leaves, bark and grasses, but they also eat some in­sects. Some species are ar­bo­real, while oth­ers live on rock out­crops. All are quick and agile climbers. They are ac­tive dur­ing day­light hours. Rock-dwelling species live in colonies; ar­bo­real species tend to be soli­tary. All make a va­ri­ety of whis­tles, chat­ters, and other sounds.

There is a sin­gle fam­ily of hyraxes, Pro­cavi­idae, and seven liv­ing species. Hyraxes are found in sub-Sa­ha­ran Africa and Mid­dle East.

Tech­ni­cal char­ac­ters

Lit­er­a­ture and ref­er­ences cited

Feld­hamer, G. A., L. C. Drick­amer, S. H. Vessey, and J. F. Mer­ritt. 1999. Mam­mal­ogy. Adap­ta­tion, Di­ver­sity, and Ecol­ogy. WCB Mc­Graw-Hill, Boston. xii+563pp.

Jones, C. 1984. Tubu­li­den­tates, pro­boscideans, and hyra­coideans. Pp. 523-535 in An­der­son, S. and J. K. Jones, Jr. (eds). Or­ders and Fam­i­lies of Re­cent Mam­mals of the World. John Wiley and Sons, N.Y. xii+686 pp.

Vaughan, T. A. 1986. Mam­mal­ogy. Third Edi­tion. Saun­ders Col­lege Pub­lish­ing, Fort Worth. vii+576 pp.

Vaughan, T. A., J. M. Ryan, N. J. Czaplewski. 2000. Mam­mal­ogy. Fourth Edi­tion. Saun­ders Col­lege Pub­lish­ing, Philadel­phia. vii+565pp.

Con­trib­u­tors

Phil Myers (au­thor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.