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Because of being an island, Sri Lanka has many endemic freshwater fauna, as well as thousands of marine and brackish water fauna. [1] Fishing is the way of life of most of coastal community. So, the marine fish fauna gives a greater commercial value to the country's economy, as well as well being of the coastal people. [2]
Few fish can be found in all three ecological systems. There are 95 species of freshwater fish occur in the country, where 53 of those are endemic. 41% of all known species of fish of Sri Lanka are found in freshwater. There are about 70% of endemism of those fish. Most of them are listed into IUCN categories.
Sri Lanka is a tropical island situated close to the southern tip of India. The bird life of Sri Lanka is very rich for its size and 528 species have been recorded. In addition to the many resident birds, a considerable number of migratory species winter in the country to escape their northern breeding grounds.
The reserve is only 21 km (13 mi) from east to west, and a maximum of 7 km (4.3 mi) from north to south, but it is a treasure trove of endemic species, including trees, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Sinharaja forest vegetation density has been estimated at 240,000 plants per hectare, the most dense rain forest in Asia.
Kotagama and Fernando – A Field Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka: Follow Sibley and Monroe 1994: 23+3: Wijesinghe – A Checklist of the Birds of Sri Lanka: Three species are suggested as endemic 1996: 23+3: Inskip et al. – An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of the Oriental Region: Follow Sibley and Monroe refers to Wijesinghe 1998: 23
Sri Lankan freshwater habitats can be divided into 6 major types - river, stream, lake, pond, villu and paddy field - according to size, depth, rate of flow and type of bottom. Medium-sized rivers are called Oya and fast flowing streams torrential streams are called Dola in Sinhalese. The following list provide the freshwater fauna of Sri Lanka.
The following table lists most rivers of Sri Lanka. Since Sri Lanka is a trilingual country, some rivers may have a Sinhala name (i.e. Kalu Ganga), while other have an English name (i.e. Kelani River). There are two words meaning "river" in the Sinhala language, namely Ganga (ගඟ) and Oya (ඔය), of which the usage of both terms is arbitrary.
There are 111 lizards known from Sri Lanka, with 17 newly discovered in 2006, and two more in 2016 and 2017. [11][12] One of species was discovered in 2019 from Ensalwatta, Matara. [13] In 2019, seven more endemic day geckos have been discovered by Suranjan Karunaratne and Mendis Wickramasinghe. [14][15] In December 2019, three more endemic ...