Hyrax animal. Order hyraxes (hyracoidea)

I became acquainted with hyraxes while traveling around Israel, when visiting the oasis of Ein Gedi. They showed themselves to be very cute and friendly animals. In addition, they turned out to be very unusual animals in terms of biology and behavior.

Description and distribution

Hyracoidea) is an order of mammals that includes one family consisting of four species (two diurnal, two nocturnal). The closest relatives of hyraxes (you'll never guess) are elephants. Hyrax is a fairly ancient animal; in the old days, their ancestors were widespread throughout the African continent, but subsequently retreated, unable to withstand the competition with the emerging bovids - antelopes and goats.

The hyrax is a small animal, comparable in size to a cat. The length of an adult hyrax is 30-60 cm, weight 1.5 - 4.5 kg.

Nowadays hyraxes can be found in northern Africa, in Syria and Israel. Hyraxes live in groups of up to 50 individuals. Having noticed the danger, they notify everyone with shrill screams, like

Features of hyrax

Hyraxes are not very good at maintaining their own body temperature, so they have to huddle in groups at night and bask in the sun during the day, like lizards. The temperature of the hyrax can fluctuate between 24-39°C.

When it's cold, hyraxes gather in groups. Photo — koller93

When the animals warm themselves, they try to expose their “palms” - the soles of their paws - to the rays. At the same time, sweat is released on them, which helps the hyraxes climb by wetting the paws, which turn into a kind of suction cups, with the help of special muscles that raise the arch of the foot. Thanks to this know-how, the hyrax can climb and descend even along almost vertical rocks.

Hyraxes have 4 toes on their front legs with flat claws, more like hooves. There are only three toes on the hind legs, two with claws, and the middle one is long and curved.

On the back of the hyrax there is a stripe of more long hair, in the middle of which there is a bare area. When I first saw a hyrax, I thought that the poor thing had lost a tuft of hair. But it turns out that a normal hyrax should look like this. The ducts of a special dorsal gland open onto the bare area of the back - it is assumed that it plays a role in intersexual communication.

Enemies of hyraxes

Every desert predator wants to eat hyrax, but their main enemy is the Kaffir eagle, which specializes in catching them.

The Kaffir Desert Eagle is the main enemy of the hyrax

The Damanian people live in constant fear in front of this bird. In front of the eyes of these animals, evolution even developed a special outgrowth of the iris that protects the pupil. Thanks to these “sunglasses”, our heroes can see the eagle even when looking at the dazzling bright desert sun. True, eagles still sometimes manage to outwit the hyrax; to do this, they maneuver as a pair: one eagle distracts the attention of the victim, and the second attacks unnoticed.

Damaniy watch

What do hyraxes eat?

And hyraxes feed mainly on grass and leaves, occasionally indulging themselves in insect larvae. To digest plant food, the hyrax has a complex multi-chamber stomach inside.

In search of succulent leaves, hyraxes climb quite high into trees.

Reproduction

Pregnancy in a female hyrax lasts about 7 months, after which small hyraxes are born. Up to six cubs are born at a time, usually 1-3. Newborns are born fully prepared for the difficult life of a hyrax - with with open eyes and capable of running fast. After two weeks they can already eat plant foods. The hyrax lives for about 10 years.

Hyrax Island

Hyraxes in Hebrew are designated by the word shaphan - one that hides. From Hebrew this word migrated to the language of the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians, on one of their travels, came across the Iberian Peninsula, where many rabbits lived. From afar, the sailors mistook the rabbits for the hyraxes they knew well and gave this place the name I-Shapan-im - Hyrax Island, or, as they now say, Spain.

Our meeting with the hyraxes

We met hyraxes in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, Israel (I wrote about this trip separately - “ “). In this oasis, the animals are protected and are not at all afraid of tourists. We were able to touch them, photograph them and get a good look at them. In my opinion, they resemble little bears.

The baby hyrax is not at all afraid of people

Hyraxes living in Israel belong to the genus Cape hyraxes - Procavia capensis. These are exactly what we saw in the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve. Here they are not afraid of people, but in general they are timid animals, although they are curious. Sometimes they even get into houses.

Hyrax is a cautious but curious animal

And a few more of our photos of hyraxes from Israel. I will be glad to comments. Bye!

Reading the article will take: 4 min.

Among the land animals of the Earth, one creature stands out in every way - size, impressive body, huge ears And weird nose, much like a fire hydrant hose. If among the zoo’s living creatures there is at least one creature of the elephant family (and we're talking about exactly about them, as you already guessed), then this enclosure is especially popular with visitors, young and old. I decided to understand the genealogy of elephants, calculate their most distant ancestor, and, in general, understand “who is who” among the long-eared and trunk-equipped. And this is what happened to me...

It turns out that elephants, mastodons and mammoths, as well as pinnipeds, dugongs and manatees, had a common ancestor - moeritherium. Externally, the moriteriums that inhabited the Earth approximately 55 million years ago were not even close to their modern descendants- short, no higher than 60 cm at the withers, they lived in shallow water bodies of Asia of the late Eocene and were something between a pygmy hippopotamus and a pig, with a narrow and elongated muzzle.

Now about the direct ancestor of elephants, mastodons and mammoths. Their common ancestor was the paleomastodon (lat. Palaeomastodontidae), which inhabited Africa about 36 million years ago, in the Eocene. The paleomastodon had a double set of tusks in its mouth, but they were short - it probably ate tubers and roots.

No less interesting, in my opinion, a relative of modern long-eared and proboscideans was a funny animal, nicknamed by scientists Platibelodon danovi. This creature inhabited Asia in the Miocene, about 20 million years ago, and had one set of tusks and strange spade-shaped incisors on its lower jaw. Platybelodon actually did not have a trunk, but its upper lip was wide and “corrugated” - somewhat similar to the trunk of modern elephants.

It's time to deal with more or less widely known representatives of the proboscis family - mastodons, mammoths and elephants. First of all, they are distant relatives, i.e. two modern looking elephants - African and Indian - did not descend from mammoths or mastodons. The body of mastodons (lat. Mammutidae) was covered with thick and short hair, they ate mostly grass and foliage of shrubs, and spread to Africa during the Oligocene period - about 35 million years ago.

Contrary to feature films, where the mastodon is usually depicted as an aggressive giant elephant with huge tusks, they were no larger than the modern African elephant: the height at the withers was no more than 3 meters; There were two sets of tusks - a pair of long ones on the upper jaw and short ones, practically not protruding from the mouth, on the lower jaw. Subsequently, mastodons completely got rid of a pair of lower tusks, leaving only the upper ones. Mastodons became completely extinct not so long ago, if you look from an anthropological point of view - only 10,000 years ago, i.e. our distant ancestors were well acquainted with this species of proboscis.

Mammoths (lat. Mammuthus) - the same shaggy, proboscis and with giant tusks, the remains of which are often found in Yakutia - inhabited the Earth on several continents at once, and their large family lived happily for as long as 5 million years, disappearing about 12-10,000 years ago . They were much larger than modern elephants - 5 meters tall at the withers, huge, 5-meter tusks, slightly twisted in a spiral. Mammoths lived everywhere - in the South and North America, in Europe and Asia, they easily endured ice ages and protected themselves from predators, but could not cope with the bipedal ancestors of humans, who diligently reduced their population throughout to the globe. Although scientists still consider the main reason for their complete and widespread extinction ice age caused by the fall of a huge meteorite in South America.

Today, two species of elephants exist and are relatively healthy - African and Indian. African elephants(lat. Loxodonta africana) with a maximum weight of 7.5 tons and a height at the withers of 4 meters, they live south of the African Sahara Desert. Just one representative of this family is in the first image of this article.

Indian elephants (lat. Elephas maximus) with a weight of 5 tons and a height of 3 meters at the withers, are common in India, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Laos and Sumatra. Indian elephants have much shorter tusks than their African relatives, with females having no tusks at all.

Elephant skull (varnished, sort of)

By the way, it was the skulls of mammoths, regularly discovered by ancient Greek researchers, that formed the basis of the legends about giant Cyclops - most often there were no tusks on these skulls (nimble Africans stole them for construction purposes), and the skull itself was very similar to the remains of a colossal Cyclops. Note the hole in the frontal part of the skull, to which the trunk is connected in living elephants.

Modern species of elephants are only the remnants of the great family of proboscis, which in the distant past inhabited planet Earth...

The habitat of hyraxes is east coast The Mediterranean, the Sinai and Arabian Peninsulas and Africa, more precisely, the savannahs south of the Sahara Desert. Looking at this funny animal, you can mistake it for some kind of rodent: it looks like either a marmot or a guinea pig. It's incredible, but true: in fact it is " terrible beast", whose closest relatives are elephants, reports the site with reference to the publication N+1.

Hyraxes have nothing to do with rabbits or guinea pigs, not at all to rodents. Their closest relatives are, surprisingly, the proboscis: elephants and their extinct relatives, as well as the sirens: the exterminated Steller's cow and its surviving brothers, dugongs and manatees. Hyraxes are similar to them in many morphological characteristics - and this relationship is confirmed by genetic studies.

Unlike their imposing relatives, hyraxes have a rather unprepossessing appearance, are no larger in size than cats and look like marmots without a tail. On their front paws they have four toes with flat nails that look like small hooves, and on their hind paws they have three toes, on one of which the nail is curved.

These hoof-like nails are one of those morphological features that bring hyraxes closer to elephants and sirens: both elephants and even manatees have nails, very small, along the edge of the flippers.

Another feature that brings hyraxes closer to elephants is their tusks. Hyraxes do have tusks, albeit very small ones, which, like elephants, are formed by incisors. In most other animals, the tusks are formed by fangs - such as walruses, warthogs or wild boars.

Hyraxes also have other features that they share with their larger relatives. For example, males do not have a scrotum and their testes remain in the abdominal cavity, while females have nipples near the armpits (as well as in the groin area).

Later molecular studies showed that hyraxes, like elephants and sirens, are in no way related to ungulates, and penungulates are a group of organisms with a common origin.

This squad has one thing in common modern family Procavidae, including 3 genera and about 10 species.

Externally, hyraxes look a little like a rabbit, a tailless marmot, or a very large haymaker. Their body length is from 30 to 60 cm, there is no tail, or it is only 1-3 cm long, the weight of the animal is from 1.5 to 4.5 kg. The muzzle is short, with a forked upper lip; the ears are small, in some species almost hidden in the fur; legs are short but strong. The front feet are four-toed with flattened claws resembling hooves; The hind feet are three-toed, the inner toe bears a long curved nail, and the others have hoof-like claws like the front feet. The bare soles have pads, and the central part of the arch of the sole can be raised by special muscles when it is supported on the substrate, which creates a vacuum, and the paw is sucked to the surface of a stone or tree trunk. Glands on the soles, which secrete a rubber-like secretion, promote strong suction of the sole to the substrate. Thanks to this device, hyraxes can run up and down vertical rocks and tree trunks with great agility and speed. There are 28 milk teeth, 34-38 permanent teeth. The only pair of upper incisors with constant growth is devoid of enamel on the inner surface and resembles rodent incisors. A wide diastema separates the incisors from one pair of canines (the latter may be absent). Premolar (4/4) and especially molar (3/3) teeth are similar to the teeth of ungulates. The stomach is divided into 2 sections. On the back of hyraxes there is a large secreting glandular field of 7-8 lobes - the dorsal gland, the meaning of which is unclear. In young people it is poorly developed, and in females it is less than in males. When frightened or excited, the hair covering the gland (they are a different color than the hair on the entire back) becomes ruffled, exposing the gland, from which an odorous substance is released.

The fur of hyraxes is thick, has a soft undercoat and hard awns. On the body (especially on the muzzle above the eyes and on the neck) there are tufts of long whiskers. The color of the fur is often brownish-gray with different shades, but there is always a patch of light or black hair on the dorsal gland.

Hyraxes inhabit Africa, Southwest Asia(Arabian Peninsula). Terrestrial species of hyraxes live on rocks, rising along mountain slopes to an altitude of 4500 m above sea level, or among stones and bushes on dry plains. Tree hyraxes inhabit forests. They are herbivorous, but most also eat insects and their larvae. Hyraxes are breeding all year round. Their pregnancy lasts 7-7.5 months. The young are born well developed, sighted, covered with fur and soon become independent.

The origin of hyraxes is unclear. Perhaps they are closest to proboscideans. In fossil form, hyraxes are known from the early Oligocene of Africa. In the Pliocene, in addition to Africa and South-West Asia, they were common in Southern Europe.

Tree hyraxes(Dendrohyrax dorsalis, D. validus, D. arboreus) live in the forests of Central and Southern Africa. They are found on mountain slopes up to an altitude of 4500 m above sea level. The fur of tree hyraxes is longer and silkier than that of other species. The color of the upper body is brown with a grayish and yellowish coating due to the light-colored ends of the hair. The dorsal gland is covered with whitish hair. Short white hair covers the rim of the ears. The lower surface of the body is brown. Tree hyraxes differ in the details of the structure of their teeth and shades of fur color. Their body length is 40-60 cm, their tail is 1-Zele, weight is 1.5-2.5 kg.

Tree hyraxes are very mobile: they quickly run up and down tree trunks, jump from branch to branch. These animals lead night look life and therefore hardly noticeable. However, in the evenings the forest is filled with their cries, signaling that hyraxes have come out to feed. At night, the screams subside, but fill the forest again before dawn, when the animals return home. The call of tree hyraxes consists of a series of croaking sounds ending in a sharp squeal. The voices of tree hyraxes of different species are clearly distinguishable. You can also distinguish a male from a female by its cry. Hyraxes scream only in trees. Probably, the cries of hyraxes are signals that the territory is occupied. Hyraxes lead a solitary lifestyle. The individual area of this animal is about 0.25 km2.

Hyraxes feed on leaves, buds, caterpillars and other insects. They often go down to the ground to feed, where they eat grass and collect insects; they spend the day in hollows or in the crown of a tree among dense foliage.

There is no specific breeding season, and they produce young all year round. Pregnancy lasts 7 months. Usually they bring one, rarely two cubs. They are born sighted, covered with hair, very large (almost half the length of the mother) and a few hours after birth they are already climbing trees. Sexual maturity is reached at 2 years.

The main enemies of tree hyraxes are leopards, snakes and birds of prey. When in danger, hyraxes take a characteristic pose, turning their backs to the enemy and ruffling the hair on the dorsal gland so that the glandular field is exposed. Local residents everywhere catch hyraxes, as the meat of these animals good quality. In captivity, tree hyraxes quickly become tame and live up to 6-7 years.

Genus mountain, or gray, hyraxes (Heterochyrax) includes 5 or 6 closely related species, common in Central and South Africa. Body length 30-38 cm, weight - 4.7-3.5 kg, no tail. The body is covered with short, rather coarse fur. It is brownish-whitish above, with dark ripples due to separate groups hair with black tips. The dorsal gland is covered with yellowish-whitish hair. The underparts are white. Species of rock hyraxes, including those inhabiting the islands of Lake Victoria, differ in the details of the structure of their teeth and coloration.

Mountain hyraxes live in mountainous, rocky areas from the sea coast to an altitude of 3800 m above sea level. They settle in colonies of several dozen to hundreds of animals.

Rock hyraxes are active during the day, making them easy to observe. In the morning, at first sun rays, they appear on rocks and stones, basking in the sun, like lizards. At first they move little and lie in a heap until (as recent studies have shown) their body temperature rises from 34 to 39°. Having warmed up, they animatedly dart among the stones, playing with each other. Soon the hyraxes (primarily females) begin to feed. At the slightest danger, these animals squeal piercingly and hide among the stones or in rock crevices. However, they are very curious, and soon screams are heard here and there among the stones and the faces of animals appear. If you sit motionless among the colony, the hyraxes again start playing, continue to feed or bask, spread out on a stone. However, they see and hear very well: the slightest movement or click of the camera makes the animals hide.

Hyraxes spend most of the hot African day motionless, lying on the rocks, with their paws spread out to the sides and their soles turned up; apparently, this typical pose is due to the fact that hyraxes have sweat glands only on their soles.

In the evening, at 16-18 hours, hyraxes feed again, dig up rhizomes, bulbs or catch locusts. They spend the night among the stones, where they build nests lined with wool inside. In the nest, several animals gather in a dense pile, which helps them maintain high temperature, since their thermoregulation is poorly developed.

In the same nest made of wool, the female brings more often two cubs, sometimes one or three. (Heterochyrax brucei has an average of 1.7 young per female.) Gestation lasts about 7.5 months (average 225 days). Mountain hyraxes breed all year round, but more often young ones appear in February - March, before the rainy season. They are born sighted, covered with fur, and within a few hours they are already running.

The main enemies of mountain hyraxes are pythons, mongooses and birds of prey. The natives catch mountain hyraxes and eat their meat, but it is worse than tree meat. In captivity, rock hyraxes live well, but usually remain aggressive, bravely defending themselves using sharp, strong teeth.

Genus rocky or desert, hyraxes (Procavia) includes 3 species, distributed in Africa and Arabian Peninsula. Their body length is 30-55 cm, weight - 1.4-2 kg. There is no external tail. The fur is short and coarse. On top it is colored brown-gray, lighter on the sides. The underparts are creamy. The dorsal gland is covered with black stripes. On the muzzle there are long black whiskers (the length of the whiskers is up to 18 cm). Rock hyraxes differ mainly in shades of color, size and details of the structure of the teeth. Externally, especially from a distance, rocky hyraxes, like mountain hyraxes, are very reminiscent of huge hay hyraxes or tailless marmots.

These hyraxes inhabit rocks, large rocky placers, outcrops or rocky shrubby deserts. They find shelter among rocks or dig holes between the roots of bushes.

Rock hyraxes live in colonies of 5-6 to 50 animals. They are active during the day, but sometimes come to the surface on moonlit nights. Unlike other hyraxes, they feed mainly on grass, leaves and bark of shrubs; They also eat animal food, especially locusts. Despite their short legs, the animals are very mobile and run away from the shelter at a distance of up to 3 km.

They breed all year round. Pregnancy lasts 7.5 months. Females usually give birth in June - July, after the end of the rains. A female often has 2, less often 3, young (Procavia habessinica and P. johnstoni have an average of 1.9 young per female). The animals are born sighted and covered with fur; after a few hours they leave the nest (in a hole or among stones) and begin to run. Female cape hyrax(P. capensis) gives birth to up to 6 young, and its newborns are less developed than those of other hyraxes and stay near the mother for some time.

The main enemies of hyrax are leopard, caracal, foxes, mongooses and birds of prey. When attacked by an enemy, the hyrax not only takes a defensive pose, exposing the dorsal gland on which the hair stands on end, but also defends itself with its strong teeth. Local residents eat hyrax meat as food.

In captivity, hyraxes can live up to 5-6 years. Young ones are funny and tame, while adults are angry and aggressive.

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"ORDER HYRACOIDEA" in books

Order Insectivores

From the book Mammals author

Order Insectivores This order includes hedgehogs, moles, and shrews. These are small animals with a small brain, the hemispheres of which do not have grooves or convolutions. The teeth are poorly differentiated. Most insectivores have an elongated muzzle with a small proboscis.