Category: Animals
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Straw-colored Fruit Bat, Eidolon helvum, is a species of bats, called Àdón in Yoruba, a mammal having the distinguishing feature of their forelimbs being developed as wings, thereby becoming the only mammal that flies. The neck and back of this species display the straw color, hence the name, while the ventral side of the body…
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Baboon is one the world’s largest monkeys. There are five species: Olive, Yellow, Chacma, Guinea, and Hamadryas, belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. Baboons in Nigeria belong to the Olive baboon species (Papio anubis). Olive baboons are large, heavily built primates living in multi-male-multi-female groups. They live for up to 30 years…
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Leopard, called Ekùn (also Amotekùn) in Yoruba, was placed by the foremost taxonomist, Linnaeus, within the genus Panthera, together with the Tiger, Lion and Jaguar which all appear to be bigger in size. The larger family is the felidae which is the biological family of cats. Subspecies are classified by variations on the nature of…
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Lion is called kìnìún in Yoruba and admired in the culture as the king of all animals because of its glossy skin and its mane, the impressive fringe of long hair that encircles the heads of their males. Lion is the most distinctive member of the Carnivora order. The scientific name, Panthera leo was given by…
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Lizard, the red-headedrock agama, Agama agama, is the most populous of the 60 or more species of lizards native to Africa and Eurasia. In sub Saharan Africa it is well suited to arid conditions. However, they need a basking spot of 90F and an ambient temperature of around 80F. Adults grow between 30cm – 35cm…
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Apiculture is a branch of Agriculture that is concerned with the keeping of honey bees, especially for commercial purposes. It dates back to ancient times when man learnt to drive bees away from their hives so as to harvest the combs in which the bees store honey. About two decades ago, agriculturalists began to sensitize…
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Long-tailed pangolin, Manis tetradactyla, have long prehensile tails that make up almost two-thirds of their total length, therefore having the longest tails and shortest bodies of the Pangolins, the only group of known mammals having keratin scales. They range in size from 30 to 40cm in length and 2 to 3 kg in weight. Their…
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Mangabey is an arboreal (also terrestrial), endothermic, frugivorous, insectivorous, omnivorous, bilaterally symmetrical, social primate found only within approximately 200 km of the Nigerian coast. They are also found in swamp, mangrove, and valley forests, from western Nigeria southward to the east Cameroon through the coast of Equatorial Guinea to Gabon. Of the 4-6 species of…
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Mona Monkey, scientific name, Cercopithecus mona, is an arboreal, diurnal, omnivorous, frugivorous, social African monkey (called Guenon) with a body length of 32 to 53 cm and a long tail of 67 to 90 cm. The dorsal fur is red-brown to brown-agouti. The ventral surface and buttocks are white. The upper half of the face…
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Mongoose, formerly included in the civet family because of its possession of anal scent glands, the mongoose, Herpestidae, called Eta or Kolokolo in Yoruba, is a family of small, predominantly diurnal carnivorous animals with a greyish or brown fur, long body and face, short legs, small rounded ears and tapered snouts. From one of the…
