COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een Pamona geestenhuis ten zuiden van het Poso-meer TMnr 60028788

Lake Poso () is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

Central Sulawesi Central Sulawesi (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Sulawesi Tengah'') is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located at the centre of the island of Sulawesi. The administrative capital and largest city is located in Palu. The provin ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, and the third-deepest lake in Indonesia. The town of Pendolo is situated at the southern end of the lake, the town of Tentena is located at the northern end, while a number of smaller villages dot the shoreline. The lake drains into the Poso River at Tentena, which flows into the

Molucca Sea The Molucca Sea (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Laut Maluku'') is located in the western Pacific Ocean, around the vicinity of Indonesia, specifically bordered by the Indonesian Islands of Sulawesi, Celebes (Sulawesi) to the west, Halmahera t ...

at the town of

Poso Poso (Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, Old Spelling: ''Posso'') is the administrative capital of Poso Regency, Indonesia. It is the main port and transportation hub for the central-southern coast of Central Sulawesi. Its urban area consists of thre ...

Ecology

The lake contains various fish, including the eel '' Anguilla marmorata'' which migrates between the lake and the sea, and 11 fish species that are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the lake, notably buntingi ricefish (''

Adrianichthys ''Adrianichthys'' is a genus of ricefishes. The genus is Endemism, endemic to Lake Poso in Sulawesi, Indonesia. All four species are considered seriously threatened and two of these, ''A. kruyti'' and ''A. roseni'', have not been recorded for dec ...

'', '' Oryzias nebulosus'', '' O. nigrimas'' and '' O. orthognathus''), gobies ('' Mugilogobius amadi'' and '' M. sarasinorum''), and the halfbeak '' Nomorhamphus celebensis''. These endemics are all highly threatened; in some cases possibly already

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. One of the reasons for the drastic decline of the native fish are introduced, non-native species, particularly Mozambique tilapia and common carp. There is also a large number of endemic '' Tylomelania'' freshwater snails in the lake, as well as 11 endemic '' Caridina'' shrimps and Parathelphusid crabs (genera '' Migmathelphusa'', '' Parathelphusa'' and '' Sundathelphusa'').Chia, O.C.K. and P.K.L. Ng (2006). ''The freshwater crabs of Sulawesi, with descriptions of two new genera and four new species (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura: Parathelphusidae).'' Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 54: 381–428. A park containing wild orchids is located near the village Bancea on the lake. As well the forests surrounding the lake still provide rare sightings of the

anoa Anoa, also known as dwarf buffalo and ''sapiutan'', are two species of the genus ''Bubalus'', placed within the subgenus ''Anoa'' and endemic to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia: the mountain anoa (''Bubalus quarlesi'') and the lowland ano ...

(dwarf buffalo) and the

babirusa The babirusas, also called deer-pigs (), are a genus, ''Babyrousa'', in the Suidae, swine family found in the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi, Togian Islands, Togian, Sula Islands, Sula and Buru. All members of this genus were considered part of a ...

(literally, pigdeer), a

ruminant Ruminants are herbivorous grazing or browsing artiodactyls belonging to the suborder Ruminantia that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microb ...

pig. These two endangered species are among a number of wildlife species found only on the island of Sulawesi.

References

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Landforms of Central Sulawesi Freshwater ecoregions Poso basin

Ecology

See also

References