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Rock hyrax
Rock hyrax

An oddball mammal, offshoot from relatively close to the base of the placental mammalian tree -- sometimes called the Syrian rabbit, but has nothing to do with rabbits. Elephants & manatees are its closest living relatives -- what, you can't see the family resemblance? Well, guess that's not surprising -- even those, it's pretty distant from.

I was surprised to read that it doesn't have very good body temperature regulation -- it lives in relatively warm climates in Africa & the Middle East & supplements its metabolic efforts with behavioral thermoregulation (basking, huddling, or sheltering), like a lizard.

At this busy tourist site they have become quite used to people and were foraging right near the path. There was a group of a dozen or so, very social.

When I saw them, I got all excited -- hey, a whole new order of mammals for my lifelist! -- until somebody nearby in line authoritatively informed us that they weren't hyraxes, they were nutrias, a S Am rodent imported for fur (that quickly lost any useful fur in the warm climate, but is disruptive to the native aquatic vegetation). I was so disappointed! Until later in the trip when we saw bona fide nutrias, which are totally different (and which I mistook for otters until I got THAT straightened out, but that's a different story.). Well, they're about the same size & color, but that's about the size of it! They have a long tail, for starters, and are aquatic like muskrats.

The "cape" in the name, BTW, refers to the Cape of Good Hope -- where European naturalists first studied all sorts of species and named dozens of them the 'Cape' such-and-such, with little or no idea of the extent of their range. They may be land animals found throughout all of sub-Saharan Africa (or beyond, as in this case), or seabirds found as far away as New Zealand.

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Taken on: October 7, 2009
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Sets appears in:   • Israel 2009    • Mammals   
Camera: Sony DSC-H9, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, 21.4mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Sony DSC-H9
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure Time: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length: 21.4mm
ISO: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Program AE
Exposure Mode: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
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Rock hyrax

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