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Animals in Rwanda
The land-locked country of Rwanda has a widely-varied topography consisting of volcanic mountains, rolling plains, swamps, savannah, and many lakes. These habitats support many different kinds of animal life. The climate is classified as that of a temperate tropical highland due to its altitude and alternating wet and dry seasons.

Perhaps the most diverse wildlife is the native bird population which consists of 670 species of birds. Twenty-six of the bird species are endemic to the western part of Africa's Great Rift Valley, an enormous trench that includes Lake Victoria and reaches into Rwanda.

Much of Rwanda's biodiversity is concentrated into the three national parks which have been designated as conservation areas. Although Nyungwe Forest has numerous amphibian, mammal, bird, and reptile species, it is best known for its thirteen different species of monkeys. One quarter of the continent's monkey species are represented there.

Volcanoes National Park, carpeted in rainforest vegetation and bamboo groves, is a haven for the Mountain
gorilla
Gorilla. This park is where naturalist Diane Fossey studied these great apes. Her life and work was portrayed in the Hollywood movie 'Gorillas in the Mist.' Near the research center where she spent nearly twenty years studying the gorillas lays her grave.

Visit the Akagera National Park and you might see Topis prancing and locking their horns together. A Topi is a species of antelope with a dark coat and a distinctive hump above the shoulder. Their slightly curved horns are ringed, but thicker and shorter than a gazelle's horns.

Sadly, some of this nation's wildlife has suffered as result of political turmoil. Human refugees have at times occupied conservation areas, temporarily or permanently displacing animals from wildlife refuges.


Click here for a list of endangered animals in Rwanda.
Even-toed ungulates in Rwanda
Blue duiker
Common warthog
Black-fronted duiker
Yellow-backed duiker
Giant forest hog
Weyn's duiker
Bushpig
Bohar reedbuck
Common hippopotamus
Roan antelope
Grey duiker
African buffalo
Water chevrotain
Tsessebe
Waterbuck
Klipspringer
Marshbuck
Bushbuck
Oribi
Impala
Peter's duiker
Carnivores in Rwanda
African civet
Wild cat
African golden cat
Spotted hyaena
Serval
African palm civet
Marsh mongoose
Slender mongoose
African lion
Egyptian mongoose
Leopard
Banded mongoose
Honey badger
Speckle-throated otter
African clawless otter
Striped polecat
African wild dog
Side-striped jackal
African striped weasel
Bats in Rwanda
Rüppel's pipistrelle
Peter's dwarf epauletted fruit bat
Lesser long-fingered bat
Greater long-fingered bat
Angolan free-tailed bat
Midas free-tailed bat
Geoffroy's horseshoe bat
Railer bat
Eloquent horseshoe bat
Rüppell's horseshoe bat
Gland-tailed free-tailed bat
Hildebrandt's horseshoe bat
Sundevall's roundleaf bat
Spotted free-tailed bat
Lander's horseshoe bat
Cyclops roundleaf bat
Little free-tailed bat
Long-haired rousette
Little collared fruit bat
Noack's roundleaf bat
African yellow bat
Nut-colored yellow bat
Cape hairy bat
Welwitch's bat
Bate's slit-faced bat
Hairy slit-faced bat
Madagascan large free-tailed bat
Large-eared slit-faced bat
Dwarf slit-faced bat
Egyptian slit-faced bat
Yellow-winged bat
Large-eared free-tailed bat
Straw-coloured fruit bat
Ethiopian epauletted fruit bat
Wahlberg's epauletted fruit bat
Dobson's fruit bat
Franquet's epauletted fruit bat
Hyraxes in Rwanda
Bush hyrax
Western tree dassie
Hares, pikas, and rabbits in Rwanda
Cape hare
Bunyoro rabbit
Horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs in Rwanda
Burchell's zebra
Black rhinoceros
Pangolins in Rwanda
Cape pangolin
Giant ground pangolin
Primates in Rwanda
Potto gibbon
Mohol galago
Lesser bushbaby
Black-cheeked white-nosed monkey
Owl-faced guenon
L'hoest's guenon
Blue monkey
Angolan black-and-white colobus
Eastern black-and-white colobus
Garnett's greater galago
Gray-cheeked mangabey
Chimpanzee
Elephants in Rwanda
African elephant
Rodents in Rwanda
Natal multimammate mouse
Carruther's mountain squirrel
Jackson's praomys
Forest giant squirrel
Woodland thicket rat
African groove-toothed rat
Shining thicket rat
Red-legged sun squirrel
Ruwenzori sun squirrel
Toad mouse
Pygmy mouse
Thomas's pygmy mouse
Gray-bellied pygmy mouse
Moon striped mouse
African wading rat
Peters' hybomys
Giant rat
Gambian rat
Ruanda mole rat
Montane hylomyscus
Stella hylomyscus
Boehm's gerbil
Cape porcupine
Delany's mouse
Kemp's gerbil
Rufous-nosed rats
Savanna gerbil
Remarkable climbing mouse
Charming thicket rat
Typical lemniscomys
Kivu climbing mouse
Kemp's thicket rat
Gray glimbing mouse
Greater cane rat
Tropical vlei rat
Chestnut climbing mouse
Medium-tailed brush-furred rat
Congo forest mouse
Rahm's brush-furred rat
Striped ground squirrel
Woosnam's brush-furred rat
Hinde's rock rat
Hildegarde's broad-headed mouse
Kaiser's rock rat
Boehm's bush squirrel
Hopkins's groove-toothed swamp rat
Dwarf multimammate mouse
Creek groove-toothed swamp rat
Guinea multimammate mouse
Aardvark in Rwanda
Aardvark
Information about the animals living in Rwanda is brought to you by "List of countries of the world", your first stop in discovering all countries and animals of the world.

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