Mammals
AFROTROPICAL Freshwater (Rivers, Lakes & Wetlands)

Class Mammalia

Order Proboscidea

Family Elephantidae

Loxodonta africana, 'African Elephant' drinking.

Order Primates

Cercopithecidae: Old World Monkeys

Lophocebus albigena, 'Grey-cheeked Mangabey'.

Colobus guereza, 'Mantled Guereza', 'Eastern Black and White Colobus', 'Abyssinian Black and White Colobus'. This is the subspecies Colobus guereza occidentalis, 'Western Guereza'.

Cetartiodactyla: even-toed ungulates and cetaceans

Family Hippopotamidae

Hippopotamus amphibius, 'Hippopotamus'. Often the only evidence of this mammal in the day is a large head with flicking ears just above the water.

By day, hippos hang out with other hippos in the water. There will be one dominant male guarding a group of females and young. In biological terms a group of hippos is a pod or a herd, but in the literary term it is known as a 'bloat'.

Hippopotamus open their mouth in a 'yawn' to display their teeth as a territorial display . The mouth can be opened to almost 180°. The impressive and dangerous teeth (which are only for display and fighting and not eating), stay sharp by grinding against each other.

Family Bovidae

Syncerus caffer, 'African Buffalo'.

Kobus ellipsiprymnus subspecies defassa, 'Defassa Waterbuck'.

Back to the page on Afrotropical Wetlands