Fauna of Africa. Photo Album 2020. Romans Arzjancevs

      – Lions most often roar at night, a sound that can be heard from a distance of 8 kilometres.

      – Lions enjoy relaxing and lazing around. They spend between 16 and 20 hours each day resting and sleeping. They have few sweat glands so they wisely tend to conserve their energy by resting during the day and become more active at night when it is cooler.

      – Lions have terrific night vision. They are 6 times more sensitive to light than humans. This gives them a distinct advantage over some prey species when hunting at night.

      NIGER

      AARDVARK

      – They spend the hot African afternoon holed up in cool underground burrows dug with their powerful feet and claws that resemble small spades. After sunset, aardvarks put those claws to good use in acquiring their favorite food – termites.

      – A V E R A G E L I F E S P A N I N C A P T I V I T Y: 23 years.

      – During adverse weather or if disturbed they will retreat to their burrow systems. They cover between 2 and 5 kilometres per night; however, some studies have shown that they may traverse as far as 30 kilometres in a night.

      LESSER EGYPTIAN JERBOA

      – Jerboas have the ability to hop huge distances relative to its size, an ability that evolved as an adaptation to help them escape from predators, and to aid with long journeys and foraging in its desert environment.

      – This small creature has the ability to leap a full meter to escape a predator.

      – Jerboas are nocturnal. During the heat of the day, they shelter in burrows. They create four separate types of burrow: two temporary, and two permanent.

      SUNDEVALL’S JIRD

      – Sundevall’s jird is a medium-sized gerbilline rodent with an average mass of about 100 g.

      – Life span: 5.6 years.

      – Along with parasites come the parasites of parasites, in this case bacteria. Bacteria can be transmitted to the Sundevall’s jird by the flea biting the rodent.

      STRAW COLOURED FRUIT BAT

      – The bats tend to live in groups of over 100,000 and at times that number may increase to almost one million. At night the bats leave the roost in smaller groups to find food by sight and smell.

      – Although they feed at night, straw-coloured fruit bats are not necessarily nocturnal. During the day, they will be found resting and moving among the colony. Year to year, season to season, the bats will return to the same place where they found food the previous year or season.

      – The diets of straw-coloured fruit bats vary depending on whether or not they are living in captivity. Wild bats usually eat bark, flowers, leaves, nectar, and fruits. In captivity, they are fed various mixes, including apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, and cantaloupe. In some zoos, they are also fed a marmoset diet.

      NIGERIA

      SIDE STRIPED JACKAL

      – Weight: 6,5 – 14 kg.

      – Life expectancy: 12 – 14 years in captivity.

      – Leopards, hyenas and eagles are jackals’ most feared predators. Eagles are Leopards, hyenas and eagles are jackals’ most feared predators. Eagles are small pups biggest threat. small pups biggest threa.

      HOODED VULTURE

      – They often move in flocks (50- 250 individuals) in West Africa, especially when foraging at abattoirs or elephant carcasses, while in southern Africa they are solitary and secretive, making them hard to spot when nesting. They are known to follow scavenging African wild dogs and hyaenas.

      – Vultures have relatively weak legs and feet with blunt talons, though they do have powerful bills. If a carcass is too stiff for them to rip open, they will wait for another predator to open the flesh before they feed.

      – A vulture’s stomach acid is significantly stronger and more corrosive than that of other animals or birds. This allows these scavengers to feed on rotting carcasses that may be infected with dangerous bacteria because the acid will kill that bacteria, so it does not threaten the vulture.