Sleek they are not, but so charming in their demeanour. Meet the Rock Hyrax, (commonly known as a dassie) related to the elephant and dugong – the connection to their rounded physique. A lively little colony of about 15 members live at the bottom of our garden, though their numbers fluctuate while caracal finds them a delicious delicacy. When the female dassies lie sprawled in abandon on the sunwarmed boulders i can’t help but admire their aura of plumply feminine ‘curvaceousness’.
That’s my take on Ben’s theme for this week. For other photographer’s pics on the subject, hit the link “Rounded”
Nature on the Edge 
Cute little furballs!
And that enigmatic Mona Lisa smile….
ME thinks you should get FIRST PRIZE for this entry! 🙂
The first two look cute, but the third one looks as if it could take a bot out of you. Are they aggressive?
Bot? Bite I meant…
🙂
They can be quite nasty to each other, squabbling they can draw blood, but generally they’re quite placid and not aggressive towards people.
That’s good to know, especially if they are at the bottom of your garden 🙂
The first picture is seriously cute!
Nice choice for this challenge, Liz.
They are cute. I believe I saw these in Kenya many years ago. They would back up to the swimming pool and pee in it just as if it was there to be their own private toilet. I remember being told they were related to elephants. Nice response to the challenge “rounded”.
… and the babies are the cutest. Interesting account on their toilet habits. I can imagine the scene you describe – clever creatures! they’re fussy about the siting of their middens here – must have a ‘drop’ loo.
Lovely creatures – that first shot made me smile! How big are they?
Thanks A-C, they’re about the size of a large rabbit and very agile. We’ve given them names – Fat Momma, Petunia, Speedy and for a while there was an alpha male affectionately named for Pavarotti for the dusk arias he performed.
Haha – great. We had Degus when the children were young – reminds me about them.
They look so adorable!!!
Such cuties