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
Wildlife of the Gambia are common shrubs in the savanna areas of the country. "Combretum Paniculatum" may be found on the edges of the forests in the north of the country. These plants usually have red petals and the "Combretum racemosum" has red 4-part flowers, but with infloresence rimmed by white bracts. Wildlife of the Gambia Wildlife of the Gambia is dictated by several habitat zones over its total land area of about 10,000 km. It is bound in the south by the savanna and on the north by the Sudanian woodlands. The habitats host abundant indigenous plants and animals, in addition to migrant