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
Religion in the Gambia Religion in the Gambia Muslims constitute 90 percent of the population of the Gambia according to CIA factbook. The vast majority are Malikite Sunnis influenced with Sufism, of which the main orders represented are Tijaniyah, Qadiriyah. Except for Ahmadiyya, Sufi orders pray together at common mosques. A small percentage of Muslims, predominantly immigrants from South Asia, do not ascribe to any traditional Islamic school of thought. A significant minority, estimated 9 percent of the population, is Christian, and less than 1 percent practice African Traditional Religion. The Christian community, situated mostly in the west and south of the country, is