Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. Though having multiple local language names, the lake was renamed after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, the first Briton to document it in 1858, while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton.
The Nile perch, also known as the African snook, Goliath perch, African barramundi , Goliath barramundi, Giant lates or the Victoria perch, is a species of freshwater fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is widespread throughout much of the Afrotropical realm, being native to the Congo, Nile, Senegal, Niger and Lake Chad, Volta, Lake Turkana, and other river basins. It also occurs in the brackish waters of Lake Maryut in Egypt. The Nile perch is a fish of substantial economic and food-security importance in East Africa. Originally described as Labrus niloticus, among the marine wrasses, the species has also been referred to as Centropomus niloticus. Common names include African snook, Victoria perch, and many local names in various African languages, such as the Luo name mbuta or mputa. In Tanzania, it is called sangara, sankara, or chenku. In Francophone African countries, it is known as capitaine. Its name in the Hausa language is giwan ruwa, meaning "water elephant".
The African forest elephant is one of the two living African elephant species. It is native to humid forests in West Africa and the Congo Basin. It is the smallest of the three living elephant species, reaching a shoulder height of 2.4 m. Both sexes have straight, down-pointing tusks, which erupt when they are 1–3 years old. It lives in family groups of up to 20 individuals. Since it forages on leaves, seeds, fruit, and tree bark, it has been referred to as the 'megagardener of the forest'. It contributes significantly to maintain the composition and structure of the Guinean Forests of West Africa and the Congolese rainforests.
The Scorpaenidae are a family of mostly marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As their name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp spines coated with venomous mucus. The family is a large one, with hundreds of members.They are widespread in tropical and temperate seas, but mostly found in the Indo-Pacific. They should not be confused with the cabezones, of the genus Scorpaenichthys, which belong to a separate, though related, family, Cottidae.
Pseudomonas fluorescens is a common Gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium. It belongs to the Pseudomonas genus; 16S rRNA analysis as well as phylogenomic analysis has placed P. fluorescens in the P. fluorescens group within the genus, to which it lends its name.
The American crocodile is a species of crocodilian found in the Neotropics. It is the most widespread of the four extant species of crocodiles from the Americas, with populations present from South Florida and the coasts of Mexico to as far south as Peru and Venezuela.
The red lionfish is a venomous coral reef fish in the family Scorpaenidae, order Scorpaeniformes. It is mainly native to the Indo-Pacific region, but has become an invasive species in the Caribbean Sea, as well as along the East Coast of the United States and East Mediterranean and also found in Brazil at Fernando de Noronha.
Mytilopsis sallei, the black-striped mussel, is a small marine bivalve mollusc in the family Dreissenidae, the false mussels.
The Unionidae are a family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionida, the bivalve molluscs sometimes known as river mussels, or simply as unionids.
Corbicula fluminea is a species of freshwater clam native to eastern Asia which has become a successful invasive species throughout North America, South America, and Europe. C. fluminea is commonly known in the west as the Asian clam or Asiatic clam. In Southeast Asia, C. fluminea is known as the golden clam, prosperity clam, pygmy clam, or good luck clam.
Corbicula is a genus of freshwater and brackish water clams, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the family Cyrenidae, the basket clams. The genus name is the New Latin diminutive of Latin corbis, a basket, referring to the shape and ribs of the shell. In many Asian countries, these clams are used as ingredients for soup. In South Korea, there is popular soup made of these species of clams known as 재첩국 (jaechup-guk).
The redbreast tilapia is a species of fish in the family Cichlidae. It is found widely in the southern half of Africa. Its natural habitats are freshwater lakes and freshwater marshes. It is known as the redbreast kurper in South Africa.
Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater mollusc, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves which live in freshwater, as opposed to saltwater, the main habitat type for bivalves.
The African bush elephant, also known as the African savanna elephant, is one of two living African elephant species. It is the largest living terrestrial animal, with bulls reaching a shoulder height of up to 3.96 m (13.0 ft) and a body mass of up to 10.4 t . It is distributed across 37 African countries and inhabits forests, grasslands and woodlands, wetlands and agricultural land. Since 2021, it has been listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. It is threatened foremost by habitat destruction, and in parts of its range also by poaching for meat and ivory. It is a social mammal, travelling in herds composed of cows and their offspring. Adult bulls usually live alone or in small bachelor groups. It is a herbivore, feeding on grasses, creepers, herbs, leaves, and bark.
Mytilopsis is a genus of small fresh- and brackishwater mussels in the family Dreissenidae.
Mytilopsis leucophaeata is a species of small bivalve mollusc in the false mussel family, Dreissenidae. It is commonly known as Conrad's false mussel or the dark false mussel.
Coptodon is a genus of cichlids native to fresh, brackish and coastal marine waters in Africa with C. zillii also found in the Middle East. It is the only genus in the tribe Coptodonini. Formerly included in Tilapia, this genus and tribe was separated in 2013. Despite the change in genus, Coptodon spp. are still referred to by the common name tilapia. Several species are important in local fisheries and a few are aquacultured.
Pterois is a genus of venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. Also called zebrafish, firefish, turkeyfish, tastyfish, or butterfly-cod, it is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, creamy, or black bands, showy pectoral fins, and venomous, spiky fin rays. Pterois radiata, Pterois volitans, and Pterois miles are the most commonly studied species in the genus. Pterois species are popular aquarium fish. P. volitans and P. miles are recent and significant invasive species in the west Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Mediterranean Sea.
Halophila stipulacea is a species of seagrass in the Hydrocharitaceae family. It is native to the Indian Ocean that spread into the Mediterranean after the opening of the Suez Canal. This seagrass is widespread through the Gulf of Aqaba. Recently it has arrived in the Caribbean where it is also spreading.
Indosphenia kayalum is a small bivalve species inhabiting fragmented brackish-water habitats around Kochi backwater, Kerala. The specific name kayalum is derived from kayal, the Malayalam name for these backwaters. This species was described in 2018 from the Ezhupunna region of Cochin Backwater, Vembanad Lake along with other myid clam Mytilopsis and brackish water gastropod Nassodonta insignis. This is the fifth species described in the genus Indosphenia. The other species recognized under this genus are Indosphenia cochinensis, Indosphenia abbreviata, Indosphenia abbreviata chilkaensis and Indosphenia sowerbyi.
