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
Prostitution in the Gambia local "bumsters". Sex tourism in the Gambia attract western female tourists eager for sex with younger men. The Gambian Tourist Board plans to change the face of tourism in the country and encourage tourism for wildlife and heritage rather than sex. Child prostitution is a problem in the Gambia. The Gambian government is taking an active stance against it. Many young people turn to the sex trade due to poverty. The Gambia ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on 3 August 1990, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in