SAfrican BMW owner finds animals living in her engine

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - A car-owner in the South African capital Johannesburg was driven to desperation when she found a family of Cape Hyrax, small animals that resemble guinea pigs, living in the engine of her BMW.

Hoping to shake off the short-eared, short-tailed creatures known locally as dassies she drove at high speed to a dealership on the other side of town, but failing to do so dumped the vehicle there without giving an explanation.

Astonished staff at the BMW dealership phoned Johannesburg Zoo and asked them to come and rescue the animals as the car had been abandoned in their washbay and was interfering with their work, a zoo official told AFP.

"The guys (BMW staff) called us and said that there was movement in the engine, that there were animals (there)," said collection manager at the zoo Dominic Moss.

"When we opened the bonnet the dassies were running about the engine and chassis plate, under the engine and inside the bumpers of the car," he said.

"Dassies can get quite big, the size of a cat. If you can imagine having six cats in your engine," added Moss.

The animal expert believed the dassies had chosen the BMW as their new home because its space and warmth made them think they were in the "rocks" somewhere.

"The BMW is obviously nice and warm and looks like a rocky outcrop and that's why they wanted to live in it," he said.

Judging by the amount of dung found in the car, the dassies had obviously been around for a while, he added, after the car engine had been stripped down to get at the little creatures.

"They were covered in grease and had fanbelt burns... some were badly injured," Moss said.