What animal has teeth similar to an elephant’s, feet that act like suction cups and excretes a urine which has been used to treat epilepsy and hysteria? The rock hyrax of course!

Three male hyrax arrived on August 3rd from the Buffalo Zoo. Due to the hot weather, the animals could not be transported by air which would have been the normal method. Instead, staff from the Buffalo Zoo took the animals to the Erie Zoo which owned two of the hyrax through a breeding loan agreement. Erie needed to return a tiger crate to the Toledo Zoo so they brought the hyrax and were met by a Peoria Zoo staff person. Upon arrival in Peoria that evening, the hyrax were placed into the off-exhibit quarantine facility.

At this time, the hyrax are on exhibit in the colobus monkey dayroom since the weather allows the monkeys to be in their outdoor exhibit. During the colder months, the hyrax will be moved to the red river hog dayroom where they will share space with the hogs. Of course, this is just our plan and may have to be adjusted if the hyrax and hogs have a different plan in mind!

This is not the first experience the Peoria Zoo has had with rock hyrax. A pair was actually exhibited at the Zoo from 1975-1978. Also the Zoo has maintained the North American studbook for the species since its inception in 2004 and helped manage the species since 2008.
Below we have included facts about the Hyrax. To see a video of our new additions check out this link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/peoriazoo#p/a/u/0/t1XMpC9eevM.

For additional information contact Yvonne Strode, Zoo Director, at 309-696-6504.