Say ‘cheeeeese!’ You’re on camera! This dassie did not miss the shot.
Western Cape, South Africa (06 November 2025) – The Cape Leopard Trust spends months at a time running camera trap surveys across the Western Cape, all in the hope of better understanding where our elusive Cape leopards roam.
Camera traps are a brilliant conservation tool. They are motion-triggered and can record anything wandering past, day or night. They help researchers count leopards without disturbing them and, as a bonus, capture every other wild native creature sharing the landscape.
And sometimes, they actually steal the show.
This week, a CLT camera caught one of their cutest guest appearances ever. A dassie who marched right up to the lens and flashed his best smile.
“This dassie understood the assignment of taking a selfie on our Cape Leopard Trust camera trap,” the team shared.
Dassies (or rock hyrax, as they are formally known) are regulars on camera traps, but this one is too cute not to share. Adorable as these fluffy potatoes are, they’re actually related to elephants, manatees and dugongs! They’re all cousins.
“Rock hyrax teeth include two large, ever-growing upper incisors that look like tiny tusks, and four comb-like lower incisors used for grooming their fur. They also have molars like those of a rhinoceros for grinding up tough, fibrous vegetation. This combination of tusk-like incisors and powerful molars is a shared characteristic with their closest living relatives, the African elephant. Yes, hyraxes’ closest cousins are elephants, manatees and dugongs! They’re descendant from a common ancestor millions of years ago and still share physical similarities in leg and foot bones as well as teeth.” shares the CLT.
We all learned something new today. That dassies know their good angles.
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