![Lake Mai-Ndombe and Fimi River DRC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Lake_Mai-Ndombe_and_Fimi_River_DRC.svg)
Lake Mai-Ndombe (french: Lac Mai-Ndombe) is a large freshwater lake in
Mai-Ndombe province
Mai-Ndombe is one of the 21 new provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo created in the 2015 repartitioning. Mai-Ndombe, Kwango, and Kwilu provinces are the result of the dismemberment of the former Bandundu province. Mai-Ndombe was ...
in western
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
.
The lake is within the
Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe
Tumba-Ngiri-Maindombe is the largest List of Ramsar wetlands of international importance, Wetland of International Importance in the world as recognized by the Ramsar Convention.
The site covers an area of in the region around Lake Tumba in the w ...
area, the largest Wetland of International Importance recognized by the
Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...
in the world.
Location
The lake drains to the south through the
Fimi River
The Fimi River is a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It flows from Lake Mai-Ndombe to the Kasai River, which in turn empties into the Congo. One of the Fimi's tributaries is the Lukenie River
The Lukenie River is a river in the c ...
into the
Kwah {{distinguish, Kwah language
Kwah is the usual English form of the name of the famous Carrier leader Kw'eh. He was born around 1755 and died in 1840. Chief Kw'eh was the chief of his keyoh called Nak'azdli in the late eighteenth and early nineteent ...
and
Congo River
The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...
s. Known until 1972 as Lake Leopold II (''Lac Léopold II'') after
Leopold II,
King of the Belgians
Belgium is a constitutional, hereditary, and popular monarchy. The monarch is titled king or queen of the Belgians ( nl, Koning(in) der Belgen, french: Roi / Reine des Belges}, german: König(in) der Belgier) and serves as the country's h ...
. ''Mai-Ndombe'' means "black water" in
Kikongo
Kongo or Kikongo is one of the Bantu languages spoken by the Kongo people living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Angola. It is a tonal language. It was spoken by many of those who were taken from th ...
. The lake is of irregular shape and ranges in depth from only 5 meters (mean) to 10 meters (maximum). Covering approximately 890 square miles (2,300 square km), it is known to double or triple in size during the rainy season. Its waters are oxygenated throughout their depth and the pH ranges from 4.2 to 5.5. Low, forested shores surround it with dense, humid equatorial rainforest prevailing to the north and a mosaic of forest and
savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
to the south.
Biodiversity
Surveys have revealed a high biodiversity in and around the lake, with animals such as two species of
otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...
s,
marsh mongoose
The marsh mongoose (''Atilax paludinosus''), also known as the water mongoose or the vansire, is a medium-sized mongoose native to sub-Saharan Africa that inhabits foremost freshwater wetlands. It has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red L ...
,
giant otter shrew
The giant otter shrew (''Potamogale velox'') is a semiaquatic, carnivorous afrotherian mammal. It is found in the main rainforest block of central Africa from Nigeria to Zambia, with a few isolated populations in Kenya and Uganda. It lives in str ...
, numerous
waterbird
A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...
s,
crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...
s and
turtle
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
s.
[Peck, E. (2013, updated 2015)]
Mai Ndombe
. Freshwater Ecoregions of the World. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
Mai-Ndombe contains acidic,
humic Humic substances (HS) are organic compounds that are important components of humus, the major organic fraction of soil, peat, and coal (and also a constituent of many upland streams, dystrophic lakes, and ocean water). For a long era in the 19th an ...
-rich
blackwater and in general the fish of this lake have been poorly documented, even compared to other regions in the Congo River basin.
[ Although ecologically similar to ]Lake Tumba
Lake Tumba (or Ntomba) is a shallow lake in northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the Bikoro Territory of the Province of Équateur.
The lake covers about depending on the season, connected via the Irebu channel with the ...
and occasionally directly connected by channels or swamps, there are some significant differences in the fish fauna that inhabits the two lakes, but also many shared species.[ Initial surveys were performed by ]George Albert Boulenger
George Albert Boulenger (19 October 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a Belgian-British zoologist who described and gave scientific names to over 2,000 new animal species, chiefly fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Boulenger was also an active botani ...
more than a century ago and there have been relatively few later studies of the fish fauna in the lake.[ For example, the first study of its northern part was only conducted in 2002.][ More than 30 fish species are known, but the actual figure is presumed to be considerably higher.][ There are five known ]endemics
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
: the catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...
''Amphilius
''Amphilius'' is a genus of catfishes of the family Amphiliidae.
''Amphilius'' catfish have fairly lengthened bodies, with short, depressed, and broad heads. They have three pairs of fringed barbels. The eyes, small and located dorsally, are v ...
opisthophthalmus'' and the cichlid
Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted this ...
'' Hemichromis cerasogaster'' were scientifically described by Boulenger.[ The remaining are relatively recent discoveries that only were described in the last few decades: In 1984, a new species of cichlid, '']Nanochromis transvestitus
''Nanochromis transvestitus'' is a sexually dimorphic cichlid endemic to Lake Mai-Ndombe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where they live at a depth of around . It feeds on small benthic invertebrates. This species reaches a length of ...
'', named for the fact that it exhibits reverse sexual dichromatism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...
, was scientifically described from the lake. In 2006, another new species of cichlid, ''Nanochromis wickleri'', was described,[Ulrich K. Schliewen, Melanie L. J. Stiassny, "A new species of Nanochromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Mai Ndombe, central Congo Basin, Democratic Republic of Congo", ''Zootaxa'' Vol. 1169, No. 33, Apr. 10, 2006.]
and in 2008, a new catfish species, ''Chrysichthys
''Chrysichthys'' is a genus of claroteid catfishes native to Africa. Two fossil species are known. ''Chrysichthys macrotis'', Van Neer, 1994, is known from the Miocene-Pliocene of the Albertine Rift in Uganda and ''Chrysichthys mahengeensis'', ...
praecox'', was documented.[Michael Hardman, Melanie L.J. Stiassny, "A sexually dimorphic species of Chrysichthys (Siluriformes: Claroteidae) from Lac Mai-Ndombe, Democratic Republic of the Congo", ''Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters'', Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 175-184.]
/ref>
Economic activity
Some of the main concession areas of the logging company Sodefor
Sodefor (Société de Développement Forestier, or Forest Development Corporation) is a subsidiary of Nordsudtimber of Liechtenstein that undertakes logging operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There has been controversy about the im ...
are to the north and south of Lake Mai-Ndombe. On 28 November 2009, two logging barges sank causing the loss of 73 lives. The boat was not authorised to carry passengers, but was believed to have some 270 people on board at the time.
Lake Mai-Ndombe and the river system is often used for transportation across the country because the land based road system is inadequate. Many passenger ferries carry hundreds of people each day. Many of these boats are old and not maintained. On Saturday, May 25, 2019, a passenger ferry with over 350 passengers sank in high winds. Over 45 passengers were confirmed dead in the first day and over hundred deemed still missing. In response the government said it would ban wooden passenger boats over 5 years old from traversing the lake.CNN article about 2019 boat sinking
/ref>
Bibliography
* Mapping the vegetation cover of the Mai-Ndombe region (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Regional School of Integrated Forest and Land Management. University of Kinshasa
The University of Kinshasa (french: Université de Kinshasa), commonly known as UNIKIN, is one of the three major universities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, together with the University of Kisangani and University of Lubumbashi. Origin ...
, July 2003
* Source book for the inland fishery resources of Africa, Vol. 1. J.-P. Vanden Bossche & G.M. Bernacsek
References
External links
* http://www.worldlakes.org/
{{Authority control
Mai-Ndombe
Mai Ndombe
Freshwater ecoregions of Africa