Augustdupreez's Fotothing

We have a family of rock dassies living on the rocks at the beach in Ramsgate, KZN South Africa. Every Sunday morning we feed them some veggies and yesterday saw that they have 6 new babies. The safest place is on moms head!

The dassie is the African elephant’s closest living relative, in spite of the size difference. This close evolutionary relationship is deduced from similarities in the structure of the feet and teeth.

Young are born during early summer after a gestation period of seven months. Some females can conceive before they are a year old. One dominant male monopolises up to 17 females in a harem group. Solitary mature males live on the periphery of such harems.

Rock Dassies like basking in the sun on large rocks, particularly during mornings and late afternoons. Dassies are heavily prayed upon by eagles, Caracal and Leopard.