Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/88

The Freshwater Ecozone and squirrels, and many reptiles such as snakes and lizards, all cross the boundaries between levee, swamp and flood-plain forest regardless of ground conditions.

However it is the animals associated with watery environments which are more exclusive to the freshwater ecozone. These are primarily the fish and amphibians, and reptiles such as crocodiles and fresh-water turtles. However there are certain endemic mammals such as hippopotamus (including the 'Pigmy Hippopotamus') and the Manatee (the Freshwater variety of the marine Dugong).

Bird life is more prolific in the Fresh-water ecozone than in the natural LEM ecozone, because of the food and space provided by the water. The variety of subecozones and ecotones has produced a very high species diversity. An illustration of this diversity is the following list of 78 individual species sighted by the ornithologist Phil Hall during a single 36-hour period in January 1994: 86