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, 

 Uzards, 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 picPus), 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 bom 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-Uke animals haxint 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 



