The struggle among civilized people living in comfort is for money and power. The struggle in Africa is for survival. Everything is fair here. This continent offers the harshest and wildest conditions - whoever survives is the strongest. This means that it is here that the most adapted creatures on the planet are concentrated - the fastest, largest, tallest, most dangerous. So, let's get acquainted with the animals of Africa: photos with names, features and habitats of the most prominent representatives of the fauna of the continent - all this can be found in the article.
Lion
How without the king of beasts? This giant consists of solid muscles and reaches a weight of 250 kilograms. Males are almost twice as large as females. These animals of Africa are predators, they go hunting day and night, they can attack both alone and in packs. They also attack humans, and humans have killed hundreds of thousands of lions over the past hundred years. Today, about 23 thousand individuals remain in the world. In the west, in Mali, a few prides live, but the territory from Somalia to Namibia is a priority habitat zone.
Today, most lions live in fencednational parks, this is a necessary measure. An example is the Kruger Park in South Africa. Female sisters are the core of the lion pride. Together with males, they are strong enough to kill a thousand-pound buffalo. It is the male lion that delivers the fatal bite and is the first to start eating. Only one out of five pride hunts ends in success. About 12 people die every year from lion attacks.
"Ferrari" savannas, or cheetah
Since we're talking about cats, we can't help but mention the cheetah. The luxurious coloring of this animal of Africa and its incredible gracefulness make it possible to consider this inhabitant of the savannah a real aristocrat of the feline family. The handsome man is distinguished by incredible agility, is included in the list of the rarest animals, can accelerate to 90 kilometers per hour, but due to his elegance and slightly developed muscles, this "athlete" among cats is the weakest representative of his family.
African elephant - a generator of seismic waves
Probably, when asked what animals live in Africa, each student will answer - an elephant! This giant is the largest wild land animal on planet Earth. There are two types of elephants: savanna and forest. The first is the most powerful, its weight reaches 7.5 tons, the tusks are turned outward. The weight of the forest elephant is slightly less - about 5 tons, and it is darker, and its tusks are more straight and directed downwards. The growth of an elephant exceedshuman twice. The mass of the largest elephant that has fallen into the field of view of a person is known - the giant weighed as much as 12 tons!
It is to the elephant that children run in zoos. But it is worth remembering that these animals are extremely dangerous. They do not know fear, and they are not at all afraid of rats or mice. An elephant kills a person with one kick of a leg, according to statistics, about 1000 people die from these kicks every year.
These animals of Africa communicate with each other at ultra-low frequencies that are elusive to humans. And to warn of danger, they are able to generate seismic waves propagating up to 50 km: relatives can catch these underground vibrations rising up their legs.
Today, most elephants are deprived of natural conditions, as they are forced to be herded into protected areas of central, southern and eastern Africa. Elephant migrations are difficult - roads, farms interfere with these natural processes. They quickly run out of food, they have to fight with domestic animals for water. Looking for new territories, they, in conflict with the locals, devastate gardens and fields. In 1990, 200 Kenyans were killed by elephants.
Rhinos
This African animal is represented here by two species - white and black. The first representative of this species has a specific wide muzzle with a flat upper lip, the body is gray in color, there is a hump on the back of the head. The southern part of the continent is the habitat of white rhinos, but now they are also inhabited in Botswana, Swaziland and Namibia, in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoireand Kenya. Black rhinos, common in the south, also inhabit the natural expanses of Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Their body color varies from dark brown to gray. Both types of rhinos have two horns, the front of which is the longest. Rhinos can communicate with each other, and also warn their cubs of approaching danger using infrasound.
Cape buffalo
Herbivorous giants - Cape buffalo - in general, the peaceful inhabitants of the savannah. These huge animals of Africa reach a mass of about a ton. They can regard the slightest movement in their direction as an attempt at aggression and turn into an angry monster rushing at you, which can easily give a serious rebuff even to the kings of animals - lions. With one blow of a hoof or horns, a buffalo on a "straight flight" kills a person.
Previously inhabiting almost the entire part of Africa south of the Sahara, and today, in their numbers, buffaloes outnumber other inhabitants of sultry Africa. A herd of frightened, fleeing buffaloes is a hundred times more dangerous than one angry African fauna.
Spotted Hyenas
Night falls, and the wild animals of Africa enter the arena: predators and scavengers, fearless hunters and cunning insidious animals. When we talk about scavengers, spotted hyenas come to mind, living in northern Africa from Senegal to Somalia and south from Botswana to Namibia. The flock consists of 80 individuals, hunting, they are divided into small groups. They jealously protect the clan territory from other predators,driving away uninvited guests and killing their offspring. These animals of Africa, with the help of their powerful jaws, bite and chew almost any prey with bones. Nothing remains of the victim.
Monkeys are ancient animals
A huge number of primates live in Africa, as many as 64 species, among them - monkeys and baboons, four species of great apes, including two species of gorillas and chimpanzees. Indeed, speaking of this continent, it is impossible not to mention the monkeys, especially since Africa is their historical homeland. These are very ancient animals. Monkeys are especially interesting, funny and funny, they are companion animals for many locals. They live mainly in forests, they can eat insects.
Among baboons, baboons can be distinguished, they are friendly to humans, and also help many other animals, warning of danger by giving signals. Of the great apes, orangutans and gorillas live in Africa, as well as gibbons and chimpanzees.
Big-Eared Fox
This inhabitant of the savannas and semi-deserts is easy to recognize by appearance alone. In the description of an African animal of this species, there is one feature that distinguishes it from others - nature has awarded the fox with funny, huge ears that are incommensurable with the head. The color of the animal is yellow-brown, it has a light neck and belly, and the tips of the ears, tail and paws are black. The paws of the big-eared fox are relatively short. It lives in East and South Africa and feeds on termites and beetles.
Bongo Antelope
This is a typical representative of African forest animals, living mainly in the western lowland tropical forests of the continent, in the Congo River region, in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Large massive antelope with dark red hair with vertical white stripes, which can be counted on the body of an individual about fifteen. Oddly enough, females are brighter than males, and both have spiral horns and large ears for keen hearing.
Eland - the largest of the antelopes
Which animals are the most bouncy in Africa? These are antelopes. Eland is very hardy, fast, and its jumps reach 2.5 meters in height. Males and females have horns twisted at the base, in females they are thinner and longer. Animals have a yellow-brown, gray, bluish color, depending on the age of the animal. The oldest antelopes are almost black. The chest and forehead of males are "decorated" with a bunch of hair: the older the antelope, the denser the vegetation. They live in deserts, mountains and forests, as well as swampy areas.
Gazelle Dorcas
A unique animal that can do without water, as it receives all the necessary moisture from plants. Dorcas weighs about 15 kilograms, has long ears and beautiful curved horns. The color varies by range and ranges from sandy to reddish brown.
Skyscraper Giraffe
The tallest animal in Africa, whose name is known even to a baby who has barely learned to speak - a handsome spotted giraffe, reachingsix meters high - is a danger to … trees! In just a day, he easily eats up to 65 kilograms of juicy young shoots and leaves! The width of the majestic step of the giant is four meters, and when running, he easily develops the speed of a car - 50 km / h.
Okapi
And this giraffe is the rarest of all animals in Africa. Our ancestors called him Johnson's horse. The appearance of the okapi is a symbiosis of three representatives of the fauna at once: the giraffe itself, the horse and the zebra. The body of a horse, legs - long, painted "like a zebra", elongated neck and muzzle of a giraffe - this is the rarest animal that lives in the Congo River basin. The outlandish beast has a very shy character. Henry Stanley, a traveler and journalist, was the first to hear about the okapi; local natives told him about the animal. Having received the first skin of a forest giraffe for research, scientists thought that we were talking about a horse. But in the course of the study, it was found that a rare animal has a greater resemblance to the pygmy giraffe, a legacy of the Ice Age.
Zebra
These animals belonging to the genus of horses are represented in Africa by three species: the Grevy's zebra, living in the east of the continent, the Burchell's zebra, living in the southeast, and the mountain zebra, occupying the territory of South Africa and Namibia. Zebras are characterized by a specific coloring: animals of Africa have black and white stripes unique for each individual. These cute "horses" live in savannahs, woodlands and meadows, as well as in mountainous areas. Mountain and Grevy's zebras, toUnfortunately, they are endangered.
Nile crocodile
An animal lives in Africa, whose name has terrified the people of Burundi for 60 years. Gustav - this is how they call a cannibal crocodile weighing a whole ton. His body is strewn with welts and scars from knives and bullets, but no one could catch and kill the cunning beast, he outwitted all the traps under water. A six-meter crocodile with a dark spot on its forehead is not the most pleasant counter for people and animals.
In general, Nile crocodiles kill about a hundred people every year. Due to its size, it feeds even on young elephants, however, it does not shun both fish and small animals. The monster may not breathe underwater for 45 minutes.
Hippo
Herbivorous harmless hippo - the hero of children's fairy tales. He loves to open his mouth 180 degrees and is not at all safe, as many thought. This is a very unpredictable animal of Africa (the photo above illustrates its aggressive attitude). Their habitat is the upper part of the Nile, as well as the south, west and east of Africa. Only an adult lion can defeat a hippopotamus, and even then in a terrible fight, since male hippos use deadly fangs 30 centimeters long. It costs them nothing to bite the enemy in half. God forbid you meet a female hippopotamus with a cub. About ten people annually become victims of the brave giant mothers.
Hippos can not only make a roar, they serve with it andinfrasonic signals. In the air, infrasound travels 5 kilometers, and hippos hear it. Under water, they perceive infrasound from a distance of 30 kilometers and pick it up with their jaws. It is believed that hippos use this feature to determine the distance either to a rival or to a female.
Aardvark
This group of African animals are mammals, they are the only representatives of the aardvark order living on Earth. They are like our mole. Thanks to powerful forepaws with long claws, the aardvark, like a small excavator, digs a hole faster than a few people would do. It is rather slow and clumsy, nevertheless, digging a mink in a few seconds and hiding in it for an aardvark is not a problem: five minutes is enough for it to dig 3-5 meters. The cubs of this animal begin their own "digger" career as early as six months of age.
Cape Cobra
Probably no other continent in the world is as densely populated by snakes as Africa. 400 species of snakes live here, of which 90 are extremely dangerous, as they are poisonous, and they are distributed closer to the south of the Sahara.
The Cape cobra is considered the leader in terms of the degree of danger to humans. Don't you dare get in her way. The snake, 1.5 meters long, is amber-yellow in color with a brown stripe from top to bottom on the neck. This is an animal of South Africa, and the inhabitants of South Africa - the most populous country on the continent - inevitably encounter it in the fields. The number of human deaths from the bite of the Cape cobra, according to statistics, is greater thanthan from the "death kisses" of other reptiles. She is invisible because of her motley skin, and it costs nothing to run into her. The poison instantly affects the nervous system, the suffocating person dies. With one bite, a cobra can kill six people.
Oriental Green Mamba
This beauty is invisible among the foliage and lives in the forest zone in the territory covering Kenya and Zimbabwe. The snake reaches two meters in length and skillfully disguises itself on trees due to its coloring. The snake reacts to movement, one wave of the hand - and it bites, after which a burning pain is felt. The poison quickly corrodes tissue. These snakes actually prefer to retreat in case of danger, so not many people die from its poisonous bites.
The black mamba is Africa's largest and fastest snake
Her "sister" - the black mamba - is much less shy and very dangerous. The snake navigates by tasting the air and catching air trails. It can be found in the territory from Ethiopia to Namibia, and it hunts on the ground, unlike its previous relative. The black mamba, which is as long as three meters, has gained a reputation as one of the most poisonous, and perhaps the fastest snake in Africa - it "flies" at a speed of 5 m / s and can overtake a running person. It costs nothing for her to rise one and a half meters above the ground and climb a tree without relying on the trunk. If danger arises, the snake will first try to escape, and if it doesn’t work out, it will attack, bleedingvictims of a whole galaxy of paralyzing toxins. Death by suffocation occurs within twenty minutes of being bitten. Today, with the prompt introduction of an antidote, a person can be saved.
The African viper is the most dangerous snake on the continent and an unsurpassed master of disguise
When asked which animals are the most dangerous in Africa, you involuntarily answer - snakes. The queen of horror is an African viper who has a "gold medal" for the number of people killed. These snakes inhabit almost half of the African continent. Slow, imperceptible, powerful - she injects poison through her centimeter sharp teeth, which immediately destroys blood cells. But there is an antidote, the main thing is to get to the hospital faster.
Hieroglyphic python
Another species of African animals lives in the habitat of buffaloes, representatives of which literally squeeze out all the juices from their victims along with their lives. The hieroglyphic python is in no hurry, lies quietly and waits for its prey. It is not poisonous, the death of the victim comes from literally squeezing it with the steel muscles of the snake. The weight of a python with a maximum length of 6 meters may well reach 140 kilograms, which makes the snake one of the largest on the planet. These forest animals of Africa also live in the savannas south of the Sahara desert. They feel comfortable both on land and in water, they easily adapt to any conditions, they can eat fish, and to catch larger prey they “turn on a long standby mode” under water, surfacing every half an hour to take a breath. Pythons capture the prey with their teeth, hold it with their muscles.of the whole body. At one time, a python can swallow 60 kilograms of food, which is enough for him for a whole year. They can defend themselves against any enemy, no matter how great it is. A python does not normally feed on humans, but in self-defense it will kill without a shadow of a doubt, so care must be taken to avoid approaching them.
Amazing Dragon
The little belttail dragon is the most unusual animal in Africa, whose appearance will amaze even the most sophisticated connoisseur of nature. A small lizard lives in the rocky expanses of the southern borders of the Sahara desert. Its length reaches 70 centimeters, and outwardly it seems that the girdle-tail seems to be assembled as a constructor from rectangular plates. In total, there are about 70 species of these lizards in the world, each of them has its own diet.
