Funding Organisation: British Ecological Society (Ecologists in Africa, EA20/1246, 2020-2021)

Oowu Waterfall is located in a remote area of Kwara State, Nigeria, and is arguably one of the highest waterfalls in West Africa. The access road to this rare site was in deplorable condition at the time of our study. It is situated in the Guinea-Savanna zone of Nigeria. Arinta Waterfall (derived Savanna Zone) is located in Ekiti State and is also a popular ecotourism site in southwest Nigeria, especially for ecotourists that visit the nearby renowned Ikogosi Warm Spring. The third site (i.e., Ekor Waterfall) in the expedition was in the Lowland Forest Zone of Nigeria and was a previously unreported site in both scientific and non-scientific literature. However, the Abia community of Etung Local Government, Cross River State, derives cultural ecosystem services like picnicking from this rare natural monument. Despite being rare natural and popular ecotourism sites in their respective regions in Nigeria, there was no prior information on the freshwater biodiversity of these sites. With the support of the British Ecological Society, our team explored the three sites and recorded some astonishing findings. Chief among the findings was the first report of the larva of a threatened (vulnerable) species of damselfly (Pentaphlebia stahli) in Nigeria (Read Research). The species was incidentally reported at Ekor Waterfall, a site that had not been previously reported in the literature and which was not considered an important biodiversity site in Nigeria. Also, the three sites had very high conservation values based on the community conservation index of macroinvertebrates used for the evaluation.

FURTHER LINKS TO THE FINDINGS:

theconversation.com
theconversation.com website
doi.org research
doi.org findings

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