All About the Hyrax, the Elephant's Cousin That Looks Like a Rodent

Rock hyraxes are also called rock rabbits, or dassies. Other hyrax nicknames include pimbi, stone badger, cape hyrax, coney, and klipdas. Little brother of the elephant: What is one of the closest living relatives of the elephant? If you said the manatee or dugong, which are both marine mammals, you would be correct. But there is another family member that is often forgotten: the hyrax (HI-racks).

Life on the rocks: All hyraxes live throughout most of Africa, but rock hyraxes are also found along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula up to Lebanon. As their name implies, they hang out in areas where there are boulders, rock formations, or even little nooks on sheer cliffs that provide shelter and protection. Their homes are easy to identify as hyrax abodes, as the animals' urine crystalizes and looks like white patches on the rocks.