126 TROPICAL SAVANAS 
long-eared fox, or fennec, which inhabits the Sahara 
desert, and is called Canis zerda. This little animal 
has very large ears and great acuteness of hearing ; it 
is tawny-coloured like the desert sand, and is burrowing 
and nocturnal in habits. It burrows with great rapidity, 
being said to appear to sink through the sand. At dusk 
it becomes active, and sets forth in search of insects, 
lizards, small birds, rodents, or even fruit if obtainable. 
The animal is partially social, the burrows being made 
in company. A very much fiercer animal is the Cape 
hunting dog (Lycaon pictus), which has a curious and 
unexplained resemblance to the spotted hyaena. It 
is widely spread throughout Africa, where it inhabits 
open country, preying upon the ungulates, which are 
borne down by sheer weight of numbers. In South 
Africa the flocks of the white man form a favourite 
source of food. Though the animals live in holes, the 
young being born underground, yet on an alarm it 
seeks safety in flight rather than in the burrow like the 
fennec. It would appear that the dogs have little 
or no burrowing power themselves, their holes being 
either natural or obtained by ejecting the original 
occupant. So swift are these dogs that they are said 
to be able to overtake the swiftest antelope. Not a few 
other dog-like animals haunt the African savanas, but 
these may serve as types. 
Bears, as we have already seen, are absent from 
Africa south of the Atlas, and one species only occurs 
in South America, and that in the Andes. As these 
two countries have the best-developed savanas, it is 
clear that the animals are unfitted for life in such 
regions. They are indeed absent alike from temperate 
steppe and tropical savana and desert. The allies of 
the bears, such as the raccoons and coatis, are also 
