Cape Town - The Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department says it has received an influx of phone calls and emails from people about dassies found in cars, trucks and even on trains.
In the latest case of daring dassies, a family in Ottery returned from a weekend away to find not one, but four dassies of different ages having stowed away in their Fortuner’s engine compartment.
In South Africa, they are known by their Afrikaans name “dassie” (‘das’ meaning ‘badger’ in Dutch), while elsewhere they go by the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis).
“Whatever name you call them by, one thing remains certain: these cute and curious critters are hitching rides in our cars, trucks and even sometimes trains, in numbers never seen before,” the organisation said.
The Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department responds to around three calls a month from people arriving home from a weekend get-away only to see a dassie darting out from underneath their car the moment they pull up and park.
“If the horrified holidaymakers haven’t actually seen a dassie alighting from their vehicles, they have noticed a strange and ‘pungent’ odour emanating from beneath their cars’ bonnet and on closer inspection discovered a dassie midden (a fancy name for an animal’s poo) in their motor.
The SPCA's Jon Friedman explained that dassies are cave dwellers.
“They are attracted to dark, cavernous spaces that offer them safety and good cover from predators.
“Dassies are also extremely territorial creatures. They live in communal colonies comprising several families ruled over by a dominant male and his harem of females and their kids. Young dassies engage in games of chase which may see the game spilling out of the colony and into your car’s engine bay. Older dassies may be chased out of the colony by a dominant member, your car’s chassis providing a convenient safe space in which to hide.” Friedman said.
It is possible to lure a dassie out from a car engine with a tasty treat – dassies cannot resist peanut butter or fresh carrots once they get hungry, the SPCA said. The dassie can then be trapped in a box or cat trap.
Another option is to use a spray bottle with some water in it to spritz the dassie.
“Once a dassie feels that an engine is no longer a safe place to be, it will bail out on its own. Just be careful, as dassies will run from the safety of one car to the safety of the next closest one parked nearby, transferring the problem from one car to another. Do not drive the vehicle anywhere for a day or two at least to give the dassie time to leave the vehicle on its own,” it said.
Burns from hot components, engine fumes and mechanical risk of injury are all present dangers to a stowaway dassie.
“It’s not yet certain whether dassies are hitch-hiking on purpose but we have seen dassies popping up out of stormwater drains in very urban neighbourhoods where they should not be. So, the next time you get back home from that good time in Goudini or that lovely sojourn in the Cedarberg only to see a furry brown flash darting from beneath your vehicle, call your nearest SPCA,” it said.
Cape Times