Bruce Leaf, age 9, of Oakland, Calif., for his question:
What is a rock hyrax?
In the wonderful story of Noah, we are told that the animals were taken onto the ark in pairs to save them from the flood. Modern Experts have sorted the world's animals into large groups and given them scientific names. It is very hard to classify hyrax, because the little darling reminds us of several very different animals. But his ancestors, who lived in Noah's day, were called conies and certainly were there when the flood came deluging down on Noah's world.
Most of us had never heard of the hyrax until 1960. Then we read about a darling and dutiful rock hyrax named Patti. The book in which she appeared is ca11ed "Born Free, " and it tells us the marvelous ta1e of a lion nataural Who 11ived part of her life as a tame pet and part of her life in the wild. Elsa is a star character of the book. But Patti, the pet rock hyrax, certainly stole the star role in the first part of the story.
Patti eras a household pet when her human family brought home three baby lions. At that time She was about the same size as the new foster children, and she loved them from the start. In fact, she took over as baby sitter and helped to bring up the boisterous lion cubs.
The story takes place in Africa where lions, hyraxes, and many other zoo animals run wild. The rock hyrax is s renewal like a large, cuddly guinea pig. She has a dark coat of thick, soft fur, two round, furry Ears and a pair of very bright eyes.. Her legs are very short, and her tail is too small to mention. Her feet have soft pads and sets of wide nails.
The Experts had a hard time sorting the hyrax into the proper class in the animal kingdom. She looks somewhat like a guinea pig or a woodchuck but she is not related to these animals. Some of her teeth are like a rat's teeth, arid some are like the teeth of the mighty rhinoceros. And when it comes to classifying an Animal, the Experts pay a lot of attention to teeth.
Finally the hyrax was placed in the large group of animals called ungulates. Also in this group WE find the horse and the pig, the Elephant and the rhino. She and five or six close cousins are placed in the animal order called Hyracoidean. They live wild in certain rocky parts of Syria and Africa.
The little hyrax does not look at all like a horse or a rhino. But the Experts tell us that her ancestors were here long before these animals came into the world. In fact, the Expert Bay that all the hoofed ungulate animals may have descended from ancient hyrax type ancestors.