Senegal: PatowelAfter we finished our work at Navel, we took a late afternoon drive to Patowel, near the town of Kanel and another place where manatees are trapped in a tributary. It is about 25km away from Navel, deeper into the desert. Patowel is completely...Read More

Senegal: Manatees in the DesertI worked and traveled around Senegal for almost all of January, but internet access was hard to come by, and even when I got online, I usually only had a few minutes to check emails. So I have a lot of...Read More

Mission SenegalHappy 2009! I hope everyone had wonderful and restful holidays! I've been busy here in Gabon, finishing end of the year reports and grant applications and planning for manatee rescue captures in Senegal (see below for more about the situation there). I leave for...Read More

I just received a nice Christmas present- Columbus Zoo has notified me that they have awarded me a grant for my work in Gabon! This is my second year of funding from them, and I will always have a special place in my heart for...Read More

Gabon MagazineMy first popular article on West African manatees has just been published in Gabon Magazine. To see the interactive web version, click here and then "turn the pages" to the story on page 28. Or you can select "Jump to Page" from the menu...Read More

Meanwhile, in Senegal...Read More

Presentations This past week ended well, despite not being able to get out on the lagoon for surveys. I did 3 training sessions for ecoguides, which included background on manatees and an introduction to collecting samples from carcasses (basic stuff: GPS points, photos, how to...Read More

It's been a challenging week!Late last week I received news that 3 manatee carcasses had been reported within 1km of each other near Akaka, which is an enormous swamp area on a river system between the N'dogo Lagoon (where I am) and the N'gowe Lagoon...Read More

Number 5When I returned to Gamba early last week I heard that another manatee carcass had been found in Sette Cama. On Wednesday I was able to catch a ride back up there on a boat that was delivering gas and beer. On Thursday morning...Read More

Rembo Bongo, Part 2 On our second day of surveys we returned to Lac Mafoume, the one lake we were able to boat into last year. It was incredible to see how much the water had risen. Early morning view of the Moukalaba-Doudou mountains from...Read More