The very nature of hyrax middens implies that they comprise a mixture of materials, which include animal metabolic products, undigested food, and any allochtonous material blown into the middens or deposited via feet or fur. In terms of organic matter, the existence of such potentially distinct sources (i.e. extraneous organic matter and animal metabolites) implies that a range of information concerning inter alia: animal diet, animal behaviour, metabolic responses to environmental stress, changing behaviour, as well the wider palaeoecological setting of the site may all be preserved within hyraceum.