Text № 41

The wild animals from Africa attract big-game hunters from many parts of the world. Hunting expeditions, called safaris, go after Africa’s lions, leopards and such grass-eating animals as the rhinoceros. Hunting and expending settlement have greatly reduced the size of the game herds. To protect the animals, many wild animal preserves have been established in central, eastern, and southern Africa.

Herds of antelopes, giraffes, and zebras live in Africa’s grasslands. Animals that prey on them include hyenas, jackals, leopards, and lions. Elephants once roamed across much of the continent, but thousands have been killed for their ivory tusks. Today, large elephant herds are common only in eastern and south-eastern Africa. Chimpanzees, gorillas, and monkeys live in the rain forests. Tropical rivers and swamps are the homes of crocodiles and hippopotamuses.

Birds and reptiles are plentiful almost everywhere in Africa except in the deserts. Such large water birds as flamingos, pelicans, and storks live in eastern Africa. Ostriches live in southern and eastern Africa and in the western Sahara. Such disease-carrying insects as the mosquito and the tsetse fly live in the African tropics. The mosquito carries malaria germs, and the tsetse fly carries sleeping sickness germs.