Top_Heavy's World

August 5, My travels this morning took me across the lower section of the 40,000acre ranch, I saw 6 warthogs, 20 Kudu, mostly cows and calves, 4 zebra, 10 impala, and my first batch of monkeys. Vervet monkeys are neat little creatures, very long arms and tails, fragile in appearance when compared to the muscular baboon. Their fantastic acrobatic moves were most impressive as they chased each other around the trees. Red squirrels back home wouldn't stand a chance of catching one of these nimble little guys. The monkeys were fasinating and worth the time to watch! The monkeys moved on and so did we, the search started again. We moved into yet another type of terrain, from the lower river bottom area to a rugged valley type. The sheer sides and steep drops felt like the rim rock in valleys, where I hunted elk, while in New Mexico. The tall grass grew in clumps amongst the rocks, thick brush grew where ever it could get root holds amongst the rock base. The truck moved slower here, almost a crawl actually, as we navigated the boulders strewn about. The rock piles and slides created openings and hole through out, offering small denning animals perfect protection fromt the big birds and other predators. It was here that I got my first good look at the smallest animal I harvested while in Africa.
"Did you see that?" I asked excitedly "Was that a rabbit? There's another one, there's a bunch of them running every where... Stop the truck, what is that?" There in front of me, laying on a big rock was the strangest little creature. Eyes of a rabbit, the body of a huge guinnea pig, hair like a mole, almost non directional.. I had to get a better look. I couldn't take it, I had to shoot one. "Are they fair game?" I inquired. "Oh sure, shoot all you like, the blacks love them, they are really good eating and we don't sell the meat, so the trackers will really be happy if you get them one" was Allan's response. I loaded my rifle and the trackers were suddenly very excited. A quick conversation in Afrikans and Allan laughed, they wanted to know if I would shoot 2, one for each of them. The animals on the land belong to the landowner the same as if they were cattle, so the natives are unable to hunt. Protien is expensive so this was a chance for me to really make some friends. I agreed and we set out to find a couple of big mature rodents. I was shocked, they ran up the rock face, smooth and polished from centuries of weather, like it was nothing... straight up! One ran for the trunk of a tree and ran up that as fast as any gray squirrel I have ever seen. I watched a family group run from one rock pile to another and they were faster than a prairie dog as they slipped into a hole. One larger animal ran for a far off pile and it showed the blazing, all out speed of a jack rabbit. This wonderful little beast was called a Rock Dassie.

Look closely, it is right in the middle of the picture!
Rock Dassie are the closest living relative to the elephant! They have funny feet, with 4 toes on the front and 3 toes on the back feet. The soles of their feet are hairless, like ours, but they are of a glandular tissue, that keeps them moist, which is how they have such great traction on the rock faces. It was surprising how tough it was to get set up on the curious little animals, they would run into the rock piles and peek out as we walked by. I couldn't shoot one for fear of it slipping down into the rocks and thus being unrecoverable. I did finally manage to harvest a pair of dassie and I spent many minutes discovering their uniqueness. I pushed the lips back and the teeth were amazing. The individual teeth were split, like toes on a foot, and the upper canine teeth would make a saber tooth tiger jealous.

I had to bring back a skull of the awesome little Rock Dassie, one of the best trophies I brought back!