In the early evenings if you look into the sky it is common to see at least 50 of these birds flying around. Finally, there are a lot of bats in Senegal. Hundreds of them live in the trees and come out at night time. They are afraid of humans so they never get too close but you can hear and see them flying around at night.
The coolest thing I saw in nature this week was a rat! I have heard that there are rats that live in and around Thies, but I had not seen them until this week. I was helping to clean up the courtyard at work and two rats ran by. Although they are scary, just like the bats they are afraid of humans and try to stay away.
Since the days are so hot and the evenings are so cool, it is common to see African Fat-tail Geckos in your house where it is cooler than outside. We have one that lives behind the paintings in our apartment and we named him Todd! Most people wouldn't want a lizard living in their house, but Todd eats the mosquitos and flies that get inside and help to keep them away from us, so he's allowed to stay.
