This little guy (can you spot him?!) is a Dassie, or “Rock Hyrax” – a familiar friend to many geologists in the field. These animals live in groups among large fallen blocks of rock, and will pop their heads up periodically to keep an eye on you as you go about your fieldwork.
They can cause problems as they have designated ‘toilet rocks’, and their urine can cover an entire rock surface in an opaque white film – you would have to be very dedicated to want to uncover the geology below. There are gaps in my sampling of sections as a result of this – one for the methods section!
And a different view:
(c) Geology for Global Development 2013
