Talk:Rock hyrax

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Untitled

Last paragraph: "Cape Hyraxes produce large quantities of hyraceum (sticky mass of dung and urine) that has been employed by people in the treatment of several medical disorders, including epilepsy and convulsions."

Does smearing yourself with rabit dung actually treat brain problems, or is it just one of those superstitious things that people did before medical science?

The Voortrekkers used to take hyraceum scrapings and blow them through a reed into the throats of children with lung problems. In the early days of antibiotics, the hyraceum was also used as a source for penicillin production.

The traditional remedy therefore does appear to have some scientific basis, albeit very unconventional.

Cape Hyraxes are found south of Syria, through North Africa and much of sub-Saharan Africa, Israel living in savanna or grassland areas.

This sentence needs some help. I'm not sure whether they live in the savanna or grasslands areas of all these places, or just Israel. Without knowing that, I don't know how to fix the sentence. I'm thinking "Cape Hyraxes are found in Israel, south of Syria, through North Africa and much of sub-Saharan Africa, (usually? Always?) living in savanna or grasslands areas."Lunch with Jason 13:21, 6 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Closest Relative

In this article for Cape Hyrax, we say "Elephants (Proboscidea) and hyraxes (Hyracoidae) are both more closely related to manatees and dugongs (Sirenia) than they are to one another." But in the Hyrax article, we say "Recent morphological and molecular based classifications reveal the Sirenians to be the closest living relatives of elephants, while hyraxes are closely related but form an outgroup to the assemblage of elephants, sirenians, and extinct orders like Embrithopoda and Desmostylia." These seem inconsistent. In this article we suggest that the hyraxes are more closely related to manatees than to elephants. In the hyrax article we say that hyraxes are equally related to the manatees and elephants. Which is correct? My understanding is that the Hyrax article is more consistent with current thinking, in which case the Cape Hyrax article should be edited accordingly.Rlendog (talk) 14:23, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hebrew

The rock badger's name in Hebrew literally translates to "mountain bunny."

No it doesn't (lol). The Hebrew shafan sela means "rock shafan" - and what does shafan mean? Good question, but probably "hyrax". Sorry, I should take that line out, especially since "bunny" isn't a scientific translation whichever way you look at it. Arikk (talk) 11:16, 16 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Interested in the Biblical account...

Is the rock hyrax also known as a rock badger? As a herbivore, do they chew their own cud? Leviticus, in a certain English translation, mentions this animal and I'm wondering if it's the same one.

It looks more like a nutria than a North American badger.

Neil —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.27.237.206 (talk) 03:39, 19 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

NEW REWRITE: please comment

I've pretty much rewritten the page, putting things on a much more encyclopedic basis, and rationalising a lot of stuff that was scattered around the article. I'll leave it in my sandbox User:Arikk/Sandbox/Rock_Hyrax for a couple of days before replacing the existing page (although I think it's already much better), but if anyone wants to comment, please do so here or on my talk page. Arikk (talk) 21:51, 17 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I've replaced the old page with my new version. Hope you like it. Arikk (talk) 23:09, 21 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sunbathing Photo Matches Dartmoor Beast Photo!

It's an uncanny match imo, but make your own mind up [img]http://photos.forteantimes.com/images/front_picture_library_UK/dir_2/fortean_times_1225_7.jpg[/img] 195.59.118.105 (talk) 11:24, 8 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]