The First Record of the Non-Native West African Lungfish, Protopterus annectens (Owen, 1839), in Poyang Lake, China
The First Record of the Non-Native West African Lungfish, Protopterus annectens (Owen, 1839), in Poyang Lake, China
Jinming Wu1, Wen Xiong2, Dong Xie3, Xiaoping Gao4 and Haile Yang1*
ABSTRACT
The West African lungfish, Protopterus annectens (Owen, 1839), is native to western, central, eastern and southern Africa. This species has been recently introduced to many countries and regions through the ornamental fish trade. Two individuals of West African lungfish were captured in August 2019 and we observed about twenty individuals occurred in the Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China. This is the first report of West African lungfish recorded in a natural ecosystem in China. Poyang Lake is an important region for agriculture and aquaculture in China but also has a high representation of natural biodiversity. Due to the influence of some large water conservancy projects and extreme climatic conditions, Poyang Lake has experienced severe drought in recent years. West African lungfish might be well tolerant to a seasonal drought environment and might pose threat to the native biodiversity of Poyang Lake due to its abilities of predation and tolerate to drought. More monitoring and management of West African lungfish should be conducted in Poyang Lake to protect it’s native biodiversity from this non-native fish.
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