West African shaggy rat grass tussock. It feeds on grasses, leaves and other plant material. Its breeding habits are unknown. West African shaggy rat The West African shaggy rat ("Dasymys rufulus") is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland and swamps. It is a common species and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern". The West African shaggy rat is
History of the Gambia Gambia. The colony assumed an importance to the French as a possible trade route, proposed cession of the Gambia for some other part of West Africa was first mooted in 1861. It was seriously discussed again during 1865 and 1866. In 1870 and 1876, negotiations were entered into between the French and British government over the proposed cession of the Gambia in exchange for other territories in West Africa. However, the proposal aroused such opposition in Parliament and among various mercantile bodies in England, as well as among the native inhabitants of the Gambia, that the British government was unable