PERHAPS it’s just me, but I find it quite alarming that a conservation area like TC Robertson Nature Reserve is missing a key mammal species that once, not too long ago, was common here.
When we moved to Scottburgh from Uvongo a decade back, I was struck by the sudden absence of dassies. Dassies, or rock hyraxes (Procavia capensis) are a familiar sight all along the South Coast shoreline, the associated coastal bush and especially river valleys where erosion has left exposed rock. In our Uvongo garden – lots of indigenous bush, but few rocks – dassies were quite regular visitors, agilely ‘pruning’ our acacias of their protein-rich tender new shoots. Diligent searches in and around Scottburgh’s few remaining bush areas, including TC Robertson, turned up nary a one.
There is little in the animal kingdom that is cuter than a dassie.
These chubby little furballs, with large chocolate eyes, no tails, short ears, stubby legs and fat squishy toes seem engineered to bring out the “Ag, shame!” in even the coldest human heart. They are mostly diurnal and tend to lie about on rocks or branches in the sun, so are much more easily seen than most of our usually cryptic and secretive wildlife.
Tired of travelling all the way to Ramsgate – where a large colony entertains beach-goers right beside the surf – to get my dassie ‘fix’, I asked around and researched the mystery of Scottburgh’s lost generations.
ALSO READ: From My Hide: A dassie in the dark
The information wasn’t encouraging. The IUCN Red Data list showed they were present in our area until 2000, but not since. This was confirmed by local conservationists and the presence of several skulls – but no live dassies – in apparently perfect rocky habitat on the north-west slopes of the Mpambanyoni valley inside TC Robertson.
On the other hand, I discovered flourishing coastal dassie colonies as far north as Pennington’s Nkomba reserve: a much shorter trip for a fix!
Rock dassies, as opposed to tree dassies (Dendrohyrax arboreus), a similar-looking but entirely different species that does not occur here, have a complex social structure.
They live in colonies, up to 80 strong, depending on the availability of shelter, dominated by a male with his females and their young. Good sites tend to be occupied by successive generations for thousands of years, with vast accumulations of ‘hyraceum’, the earlier deposits fossilised, at the group toilet midden.
Diseases like ‘Dassie TB’ (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex spp.) and sarcoptic mange once introduced within a colony of close-dwelling individuals tend to spread like wildfire and can and have led to the local extinction of entire colonies. Given the existence of secure bio-corridors for individuals to migrate, suitable sites are generally repopulated from surviving colonies elsewhere.
Young males are driven out by the territorial male at about 15 months and forced to disperse to find new sites or survive as nomads. Young females may leave voluntarily. Studies have shown that youngsters disperse up to 20 kilometres away from their birth-sites.
Population numbers also fluctuate through drought, predation and of course, the heavy hand of mankind.
Like any intelligent mammal, dassies can quickly be spoiled by thoughtless people feeding them.
Once they lose their instinctive fear of humans, these highly adaptable and incredibly agile creatures can become pests, invading roofs and bringing down ceilings with the sheer weight of their middens!
They’re not rodents and breed fairly slowly (gestation is an incredibly long eight months), but will still reach unsustainable numbers in the absence of their natural predators, or a surfeit of human food, with resulting environmental damage to vegetation. Stock farmers who kill predators are plagued by dassies eating their crops instead.
Regarded as “least concern” by the Red Data Book, rock dassies have a wide distribution throughout Africa (excluding the Congo Basin and Sahara) and into the Middle East, with a tolerance for an unusually broad range of habitats. Strangely, they have never been recorded on the KZN north coast nor coastal Mozambique.
A ‘keystone’ species, dassies are important prey items for a number of rare and endangered predator species, including black and crowned eagles, leopards, caracals, jackals, pythons and black mambas. Their absence from an area can severely impact predator numbers.
I was recently excited to hear of a colony at Rocky Bay and spent a quiet hour at the site, delighted to see at least 20 sleek individuals, including plenty of youngsters, doing their dassie thing on and between the boulders. This is the most northerly coastal site I am aware of.
Rocky Bay is only 6.3 kilometres from TC Robertson Nature Reserve.
As the crow flies. Well within dispersal range for enterprising young dassies. But with our rampant urbanisation, busy roads, shopping malls and cane farms, I’m not at all sure the little fellows will ever find their way back to what seems to have once been a perfect habitat.
Please keep your eyes peeled – and do let the South Coast Mail know should you spot any dassies north of Rocky Bay, and especially at TC Robertson. Pictures welcome!
