Template:Did you know nominations/Wildlife of Malawi

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The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by 97198 (talk) 09:17, 13 December 2017 (UTC)

Wildlife of Malawi[edit]

  • ... that with around 500 species, there are a greater number of freshwater fish species in Malawi than occur in Europe and North America combined? Source: "... the number of fish species in Lake Malawi is 500 - a greater number of freshwater fish species than are found in Europe and North America combined."
  • ALT1 ... that the wildlife of Malawi includes so many species of cichlid that Lake Malawi National Park has been inscribed as a World Heritage Site?

5x expanded by Cwmhiraeth (talk). Self-nominated at 14:42, 26 November 2017 (UTC).

  • The article is long enough, has been recently expanded by enough, and is within policy (neutral, well cited, free of plagiarism/copyright violations based on numerous spot checks). The hook seems very good to me. This submission comes from the article lede where it is not cited and is not specifically mentioned in the body. However, I found the quoted text in the submission quite easily in from Briggs, Philip; Bartlett, Mary-Anne (2006), which is the main source for the section on fish in the article. It would be preferable if the source were more focused on ecology and of higher quality - the source is a travel guide. Also, the text in this submission is not itself cited in the article, I had to look for it myself. Most importantly, I do not think that this statement is accurate. For instance, this source written by members of the US Geological Survey counts 800 species of freshwater fish in Canada and the United States with 500 in the US Southeast [1]. Smmurphy(Talk) 16:07, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
You raise some good points. The cichlids are the most interesting part of the fauna, but the numbers of species vary from source to source and that comparison with the US and Europe seems wrong. I have also been expanding Lake Malawi National Park and I need to think some more. I am considering whether I might combine the two articles in one hook. Cwmhiraeth (talk) 18:52, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
It could be that lakes in Malawi have by far more species of endemic freshwater fish than lakes in any other country in the world (and possibly more than North America and Europe combined). It seems Lake Malawi has the most of any lake in the world. However, I'm not sure how that would sound written in to the form of a hook for your article, and it isn't exactly supported by the article in its current form. I'm not a DYK-expert and don't know what is usually done in a case like this, but I'm happy to look over any ALTs you suggest. Smmurphy(Talk) 17:25, 28 November 2017 (UTC)
@Smmurphy: I have added Lake Malawi National Park as an extra article for this nomination and done a further QPQ. How about this non-controversial hook? Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:47, 29 November 2017 (UTC)
  • I struck the first submission and moved this alt up to the top, I think that is standard but feel free to put those back, if you like. I like this version fine, but it is little less hooky and the words "Wildlife of Malawi" read somewhat poorly and seem forced. Right now I can't think of a better wording that doesn't add an easter egg (a link that sends the reader somewhere unexpected), I'll think about it a bit more and look at this again in the morning. Smmurphy(Talk) 22:30, 29 November 2017 (UTC)
  • After sleeping on it, forgetting, remembering, and sleeping on it again, I think I'm happy. Both articles are long enough, have been recently expanded by enough, and are within policy (neutral, well cited, free of plagiarism/copyright violations based on numerous spot checks). The hook seems good to me. The citation #3 in the Lake Malawi National Park article covers the hook just fine. Smmurphy(Talk) 05:11, 3 December 2017 (UTC)