Ichthyofauna of Maben Wathurawa Swamp Forest, southwestern Sri Lanka..

Abstract

In Sri Lanka, the highest number of endemic and threatened freshwater fish species is found in the south-west and most records are from outside the protected area network. They may therefore be severely impacted by anthropogenic activities (Pethiyagoda 1994, Goonatilake et al. 2020). Forested streams support higher fish biomass than non-forested streams (Lo et al. 2020), and almost all the endemics are strongly associated with shaded habitats (Pethiyagoda 1991). The Maben Wathurawa Swamp Forest (hereafter MWSF; Fig. 1), has been proposed as a forest reserve for several decades (Survey General Ceylon 1972) but there is no information available on the ichthyofaunal assemblages in that forest.