A while back YouTube decided to be a force for chaotic good and recommend me (and quite a few others) videos of hyraxes. These enigmatic little potatoes are, along with manatees, the closest living relatives to elephants. Apparently there's a clue in their flat toenails and set of enlarged incisor "tusks", the top pair of which stick out a little in males. They're surprisingly nimble for such compact chubby little things, aided by the soft soles of their paws, living among rocks or trees in cosy groups. They make a surprisingly large range of sounds, but are best known for shouting "awawa!" when they feel threatened. Since they're quite docile there are plenty of lovely videos around of them getting up to shenanigans.
Reading up on them also got me looking up the answer to the curious question of what the smallest known species of elephant ever is/was. It turns out that it is Palaeoloxodon falconeri, now long extinct. They managed to make their way to Sicily and Malta and, with a lack of predators, became an example of the phenomenon of island dwarfism, adult male specimens measuring about 3ft 2in at the shoulder. So smol!
I figured it'd make sense to have a hyrax and an elephant together in one picture, sharing a tender moment together ❤️
