Lake Oku is a crater lake on the Bamenda Plateau in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. It is located at 2,219 metres (7,280 ft) on Mount Oku, and is completely surrounded by cloud forest. The lake lies in an explosion crater formed in the last phase of development of the Oku Massif, a large volcanic field with a diameter of about 100 kilometres (62 mi). Mount Oku is a stratovolcano that rises to 3,011 metres (9,879 ft). The lake is the subject of many myths among the local people. The lake is the only known habitat of the Lake Oku Clawed Frog. The surrounding Kilum-Ijim Forest is a nature reserve, set up by Bird Life International, and home to many rare species.
The Frog
Scientific name: Xenopus longipes
Range: Found in Lake Oku, a crater lake at the top of the volcanic Mount Oku in the Northwest region of Cameroon
Status: Critically endangered
Academy Research Associate David Blackburn has been traveling to Cameroon for more than ten years, but until recently, had only scratched the surface of what there is to know about Xenopus longipes, a largely unstudied amphibian that lives only in a remote crater lake atop the volcanic Mt. Oku. These frogs' extremely limited geographic range makes them unique, along with the fact that they’re small, spend most of their time underwater, and are slow-moving. They’re also dodecaploid, meaning they have 12 copies of their chromosomes. (Humans have two.) Blackburn has been working with a team in Cameroon to ensure the survival of the Lake Oku clawed frogs in the face of increased land use around their limited habitat. As part of the Academy’s new initiative to focus on amphibian conservation and biodiversity education, Blackburn and a team of biologists traveled to Cameroon to study and collect amphibians found there, including X. longipes.