5 Animals That Live In The Nile River
The Nile River is one of the most important freshwater reserves on the planet, which irrigates no less than 10 countries in East Africa. Along its more than 6.8 thousand kilometers, it shelters thousands of species. Today we’ll talk about some animals that live on the Nile River.
Animals that live on the Nile River: what are they?
Between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Victoria, the second longest river in the world (after the Amazon) makes it possible for millions of people and other living beings to survive.
Related to the Egyptian civilization and divided into different courses, low and high, it allows for the subsistence of many species.
Next, we’ll talk about some of the animals that live in the Nile River:
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Nile miss
Nile Perch (picture that opens this article) is one of the many fish that we can find in this river, especially when it passes through Ethiopia.
It is characterized by its large size, two meters in length and 200 kilos in weight.
It is the most invasive alien species on the planet. Since its introduction to Lake Victoria, it has caused the disappearance of 200 native fish.
There was even a documentary about this problem, called Darwin’s Nightmare , which chronicles the before and after the arrival of this species on the Nile and its tributaries.
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Crocodile
It is the most ‘famous’ inhabitant of the basin, but it cannot be found along the entire course of the river, due to the construction of a dam in the city of Aswan (Egypt), which is located south of the channel.
The Nile crocodile is one of the three species that inhabit Africa and can reach six meters in length.
The body color (covered in scales) is bright or dark olive green and light yellow on the belly. Spend your days in the river waters and on the sands of the coast.
It feeds on the animals that come to drink in the river: it drags them and drowns them. Since it doesn’t chew, the crocodile pulls pieces of meat from its prey through body spins.
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soft shell turtle
This species of turtle draws attention for, as its name says, it has a soft carapace.
It is one of the animals that live on the Nile, but its habitat extends to the Middle East, Turkey and a large part of Africa, especially in lakes, rivers and freshwater lagoons.
In exceptional cases, it can inhabit coasts and brackish waters. It spends most of its time underwater and comes to the surface to sunbathe.
The Nile tortoise is in danger of extinction, measures almost a meter in length, weighs about 40 kilos – males are smaller than females, although its tail is longer and more robust – and its body is brown and oval.
It feeds on amphibians, fish, crustaceans, plants and seeds. Females lay up to 100 eggs each season.
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tsetse fly
Glossinidae is a genus of African blood-feeding insects (hematophages) and is popularly called the tsetse fly.
They are responsible for transmitting various diseases to people, including malaria.
As for its body, it is quite similar to that of the housefly, but it has some variables that are easy to distinguish: it folds its wings completely when at rest and it has a trunk that ‘comes out’ from the underside of the head.
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Hipoppotamus
This large herbivorous mammal is another of the animals that live in the Nile River as well as throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
It spends most of its life in fresh water and forms groups of up to 100 members led by extremely territorial males (not the same when they are on land).
The Nile hippopotamus is the third largest land animal, second only to the elephant and rhinoceros, and weighs up to three tons.
Although his body is quite robust, he can run at great speed, but only short distances.
