Petromus typicus
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The dassie rat or noki (Petromus typicus) is a diurnal African rodent native to rocky outcrops in Namibia, parts of Angola, and northwestern South Africa. It is the only living member of its genus, Petromus, and family, Petromuridae. Key features of the dassie rat include a flattened skull and flexible ribs, allowing it to squeeze into extremely narrow rock crevices. The name "dassie" means "hyrax" in Afrikaans, and the two animals are found in similar habitats.
Petromus means "rock mouse" and dassie rats are one of many rodents sometimes called rock rats. The family and genus names are sometimes misspelled as Petromyidae and Petromys. The species is currently listed as Least Concern by the IUCN.
Dassie rats are squirrel-like in appearance. Their tails are hairy, but not bushy, whereas the soles of their feet are distinctly bare and have pads. Their skull is flattened and their ribs are flexible which helps them to squeeze into tiny rock crevices. Their cheek teeth have two raised ridges that help grind plant material. Their chewing involves a vertical up-and-down motion rather than the typical transverse side-to-side grinding of grazers. The overall coloration... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Namib-Naukluft National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Dassie Rat sighting in Namib-Naukluft National Park on a given day, based on 23 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 11th most-seen of the 26 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Dassie Rat in Namib-Naukluft National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August and December, the lowest months.
Between 4 and 7 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dassie Rat sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Namib-Naukluft National Park, in our data
Namib-Naukluft National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Dassie Rat sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Rodentia
The closest relatives of the Dassie Rat that you can see in Namib-Naukluft National Park (order Rodentia, Rodents) are Cape Ground Squirrel (about 30%), Cape Porcupine (about 10%) and Cape Four-striped Grass Mouse (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dassie Rat is recorded against all the mammals logged in Namib-Naukluft National Park (23 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
