Updated
The African lungfish is one of Uganda’s strangest animals: a long, eel-like fish that breathes air through lungs and can survive dry seasons buried in mud. Uganda’s species is the marbled lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus), which lives in Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga, Lake Albert and the papyrus swamps around them. It can grow to around 2 metres, and it is the main prey of the shoebill.
How it breathes and survives drought
Adult lungfish are obligate air-breathers: they must rise to the surface to gulp air and will drown if kept underwater. Their gills are reduced, and paired lungs do most of the work. When a swamp dries out, a lungfish can burrow into the mud, seal itself in a mucus cocoon and slow its metabolism for months until the rains return. Lungfish belong to an ancient lineage closely related to the ancestors of land vertebrates.
The shoebill and the Mamba clan
In wetlands such as Mabamba Bay, shoebills stand motionless over channels and lunge at lungfish surfacing to breathe. Lungfish is also an important food fish, sold smoked and fresh in markets. In Luganda it is called emmamba, and it is the totem of the Mamba clan, one of the largest clans of Buganda, whose members traditionally do not eat it.
Seeing lungfish and shoebills
A canoe trip at Mabamba near Entebbe is the easiest way to see shoebills hunting lungfish. The gorilla permit costs US$800, or US$600 in April, May and November. See our guides to shoebills at Mabamba, Mabamba Bay birding, Nile tilapia and Uganda’s wetlands.
Frequently asked questions
Through paired lungs; adults must surface to gulp air.
It buries itself in mud inside a mucus cocoon until the rains return.
Lungfish are the shoebill’s main prey in Uganda’s swamps.
Yes, though members of the Mamba clan, whose totem it is, traditionally do not.
