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
Economy of the Gambia were taken during the slave trade. The tourist season is the dry season, during the Northern Hemisphere winter. In FY 1999, the UK and other EU countries were the Gambia's major domestic export markets, accounting for 86% of all exports. This was followed by Asia at 14% of exports, and the African at 8% of exports. The U.K. and the other EU countries - namely, Germany, France, Netherlands, and Belgium - were the major source of imports, accounting for 60% of the total share of imports, followed by Asia at 23%, and African countries at 17%. The Gambia re-exports 11%