An ichthyological borderland: The fishfauna of Nyungwe National Park and surroundings (Rwanda, East Africa)

Nyungwe National Park (NP) is a mountainous region situated in the southwestern part of Rwanda on Congo-Nile watershed. In spite of the high biodiversity in pri- mates, birds and plants, no fish were reported to occur in the park, probably because of the cold temperatures of the rivers. An expedition in 2022 examined the fish diver- sity within the Nyungwe NP and its buffer zones. Additional sampling was performed in the main river draining the park into Lake Kivu: the Kamiranzovu. Three hundred and twenty specimens belonging to 13 species were collected. Specimens were col- lected only in the western part of the park, draining towards the Congo basin. The diversity within the park proper was limited to two putative species within the com- plex of Amphilius cf. kivuensis, which were caught on either side of the Kivu–Rusizi watershed. In contrast, a higher fish diversity, including one clariid species and two species of Enteromius, was observed in the rivers at a lower altitude of the buffer zone. However, the highest species diversity was found near the mouth of Kamiran- zovu River, including 11 species, of which 4 were non-native: the guppy Poecilia reti- culata, Astatotilapia burtoni, the blue-spotted tilapia Oreochromis leucosticus and the Egyptian mouth-brooder Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor.

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Africa, Amphilius cf. kivuensis, barcoding, Congo–Nile watershed, ichthyofauna