Animals in Danger in Africa

Animals in Danger in AfricaPYGMY HIPPOPOTAMUSHABITAT: The wet forests of Liberia, the Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone.DESCRIPTION: The pygmy hippo is about 1.2 m long and weighs about 230 kg. when fully grown.THREATS TO: Hunting and loss of habitat.AFRICAN LIONHABITAT: Savannah, open woodland and scrub country.DESCRIPTION: Length: 2-3 m. Height: 1.2 m. Weight: 120 - 160 kg.Lions have relatively short-legged, long, muscular bodies and large heads. The mane on the males, which covers the head and neck, sometimes extends to the shoulders and belly. It varies in length and in colour, from black to tawny; well-fed, healthy lions have longer, fuller manes. The smaller, equally muscular females are of the same tawny colour but lack manes.THREATS TO: Hunting and loss of habitat for agriculture.AFRICAN ELEPHANTHABITAT: Savannah, open woodland and scrub country.DESCRIPTION: Height up to 4 m. Weight up to 7000 kilos.The most distinctive feature of elephants, the boneless, muscular trunk, is actually a greatly elongated upper lip and nose used to convey grasses, leaves, roots, fruits, and water to the mouth.THREATS TO: Hunting for their ivory tusks and habitat loss for agriculture.CHEETAHHABITAT: Savannah grasslands.DESCRIPTION: Weight 50 to 60 kg. The head and body, without the tail, are about 1.1 to 1.5 m long, and the claws are short and lack the sheath that covers retracted claws in other cat species. The coat is yellowish-brown with black spots.THREATS TO: Hunting and habitat loss for agriculture.BLACK RHINOCEROSHABITAT: Savannahs and mountainsides south of Ethiopia.DESCRIPTION: The second largest land mammal, growing to a shoulder height of 1.5 to 1.85 m, a length of 3.35 to 4.2 m and weighing up to 5000 kg. It is characterized by twin horns and a long, pointed, prehensile upper lip.THREATS TO: Hunting for the supposed medicinal properties of its horns and habitat loss for agriculture.GORILLAHABITAT: In the forests of equatorial Africa from the western lowlands near the Cameroon coast to an altitude of about 3,000 m in the central highlands of Zaire and Uganda.DESCRIPTION: A male may attain a height of 1.6 m and a weight of 181 kg. The female is about 30 cm shorter and half the weight of the male. The skin of the gorilla is black, and the hair is coarse and near-black, turning grey on the backs of adult males. The muzzle is short and hairless, with a flat nose, flared nostrils, and strong jaws. The eyes and ears are small, and the brow ridge is prominent. The skeletal structure of the gorilla is similar to that of human beings, but the bones are thicker, the arms much longer, and the legs shorterTHREATS TO: Loss of habitat for agriculture. Poachers also hunt them because they can sell the animals heads, hands, and feet as souvenirs.MOUNTAIN ZEBRAHABITAT: The mountain ranges of South Africa.DESCRIPTION: The mountain zebra is the smallest species, averaging about 1.2 m high at the shoulders, and has a strong, muscular, and symmetrical body. It is silver-white, striped with black markings that extend to every part of the body except the stomach and the inner part of the thighs. The markings on the head are brown, and the muzzle is a rich bay-tan. The legs are short and wiry.THREATS TO: Habitat loss for agriculture and poachers hunt them as game. Numbering only 47 in 1937, its number has now increased to over 200.ADDAX Desert AntelopeHABITAT: Originally ranging from the western Sahara and Mauritania to Egypt and the Sudan, it now inhabits only the south-western part of the Sahara.DESCRIPTION: The addax ranges from 95 to 115 cm high at the shoulder and is yellowish-white in colour, with a brown mane and a black patch at the forehead. Both sexes have graceful, ringed horns, wound in an open spiral as long as 89 cm. Well adapted to the desert, the addax has large hooves for running over sand.THREATS TO: Excessive hunting a