They’re small, cute and rather special – rock hyraxes, also known as dassies. Visitors of the South African coastline marvel at their heart-stopping capers among the rocks, cheerfully ignoring the plunging chasms below. They may look like groundhogs, but their closest taxonomic relatives are actually the elephant and the manatee. And that’s not the only odd thing about them.
Dassies are distinctly sociable – in their mostly harmonious family life, of course, but also in squabbles among themselves. Unusually for herbivores, their foraging needs only take up an hour or so of every day, leaving these sun-loving creatures plenty of time left for playing, snuggling or just lounging around. They have some pretty unusual anatomic features too: the irises of their eyes can contract to such an extent that they can look directly at the sun, and the soles of their feet are retractable, which makes them extremely well-suited to climbing around their rocky habitat. And last but not least, the male dassie can sing – at least when he’s courting the lady dassie of his dreams. All in all, they are a peaceful bunch but when cornered, they can be fierce adversaries.
This film is about the nature of the coastline in South Africa. Its focus is the world of dassies. We gain insights into their life from birth to adulthood and by following a particularly bold young dassie, we find out more about his family, how they behave and what dangers they face in their daily lives.
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🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🌎🌎🌎🌎
13.4.2023.Very good and best.💯💚💋😎.Thank you.
🍀🤘🤘😊
Dassies share a large contingent of DNA with elephants and manatees for the same reason humans share most of their DNA with puffer fish. Its not because they are related or share a common ancestor. it's because they share THE SAME CREATOR.
Nice to see
Dassies. The cutest critter the world has never heard of before! 🥰
Wonderfully put documentary, simple, beautiful, informative yet laughable 👏 never heard of the animal even though I come from SA, but I think I found my favorite animal now. 😍 the dassies quirkiness really had me smiling throughout the documentary 🥰
Ungh I hate it when these doc accounts reupload an old vid and pretend it’s new. Makes it annoying when trying to clear out my watchlist, and find things I haven’t seen yet
I'm so damn.. Happy 😊.. because i never think I'm gonna see this beautiful 😍
Excelente documental con paisajes maravillosos! Gracias por compartir!
Alright! Where are the black market people that can get me a pair of these cute lil guys 😂😂
Elephant shrewd
CUTE LITTLE SHITS!
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A poem by a deservedly unknown poet (me). They hyrax is a furry beast the bible calls a coney./ Some people think it's kin to rats. Such attributes are phony/For in its feet there hangs a tale/or elephants and manatees. I doubt the hyrax gives a damn,/But I do. Watch your science please.
No lie, they look delicious
Quirky little Ewok Dassies .
How unique how cute 🥰