Endangered
Synodontis pardalis
Synodontis pardalis
Synodontis pardalis is a upside-down catfish that is endemic to Cameroon where it occurs in the Dja River drainage.
Appearance
Like all members of the genus Synodontis, S. Pardalis has a strong, bony head capsule that extends back as far as the first spine of the dorsal fin. In S. Pardalis, the spine of the dorsal fin is about as long as the head, slightly curved, smooth in the front and serrated on the back. The remaining portion of the dorsal fin is made up of seven branching rays.
The outer pair of mandibular barbels is a little under twice the length of the inner pair.
It was first described by British-Belgian zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1908, from specimens collected in the Dja River in southern Cameroon.
Range and habitat
In the wild, the species has only been found in the Dja River and its tributary, the Libi River in the Central Congo River basin. Its habitat is threatened by cobalt mining on the Dja river. Spawning likely occurs during the flooding season between July and October, and pairs swim in unison during spawning.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
Synodontis pardalis is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Synodontis pardalis, Wikidata item Q3760191. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
