@secretcapetown: Forget the Big Five, Cape Town has dassies! 🐹 We bet you didn't know these fun facts about them: 1: They’re surprisingly closely related to elephants. 🐘 Despite looking like oversized guinea pigs, dassies are actually one of the elephant’s closest living relatives. 2: They’re excellent climbers. 🌲 Dassies have specialised feet with rubbery, sweat-gland-like pads that help them grip rocks, making them perfectly suited to Cape Town’s mountains. 3: They love basking in the sun. 🌞 Dassies spend plenty of time warming themselves on rocks, especially in the morning, before heading off to feed. 4: They live in colonies. 💛 Dassies are highly social and often live together in groups, with several animals keeping watch while others feed or relax. 5: They have a very unusual way of cooling down. 🐾 Because they don’t have many sweat glands, dassies use behavioural adaptations, including seeking shade and changing their activity patterns, to manage the heat. Leave a 😍 if you’re equally as obsessed with these little fluffballs as we are!

secretcapetown

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Monday 14 September 2026 14:14:37 GMT