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
Districts of the Gambia Districts of the Gambia The Gambia is subdivided into 43 districts. They are listed below, by Local Government Area (previously Regions, known as Divisions until 2007), each with its population at the 15 April 2013 Census (provisional returns). The former Banjul Region is now divided into two Local Government Areas (LGAs) - Banjul City (which is now subdivided into 3 districts) and Kanifing (consisting of a single district). The former Central River Division is now divided into two LGAs - Kuntaur LGA in the west and Janjanbureh LGA in the east. Each of the other former Divisions has now become