West African shaggy rat long as the head-and-body length; it is ringed by small scales and clad with sparse short bristles. The head-and-body length of this rat averages and the weight averages . The West African shaggy rat is native to tropical West Africa; its rangeincludes Benin, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. It inhabits wetlands and swampy areas, streams, riverbanks, lakesides, young oil-palm plantations and rice fields. The West African shaggy rat is a terrestrial species. It is nocturnal and a good swimmer. It lives in a shallow burrow, the entrance often hidden under a
The Gambia Department of State, the "Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World" and the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use, the Gambia is one of only two countries whose self-standing short name for official use should begin with the word "The" (the other one being The Bahamas). Upon independence in 1965, the country used the name "The Gambia". Following the proclamation of a republic in 1970, the long-form name of the country became "Republic of The Gambia". The administration of Yahya Jammeh changed the long-form name to "Islamic Republic of The Gambia" in December 2015. On 29 January 2017