Senegal: Manatees in the Desert

I 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 news to catch up on! I arrived in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, on 5 January and spent the first week meeting with collaborators to plan the manatee captures and helping to arrange logistics for the field site at Navel, which is a 10 hour drive across eastern Senegal. There are many groups and agencies involved in manatee issues here: on the government side there are representatives from Senegal national parks, Water and Forestry Dept. and the Fisheries Ministries of Navel and Matam. NGOs involved included CBD-Habitat, Oceanium Dakar, Wetlands International, and of course myself from Wildlife Trust.

On 11 January CBD-Habitat collaborators arrived from Spain and Guinea-Bissau, and the next day we began the drive across the desert to Navel. It took a day and a half to get there, and it was an interesting drive into a land of sand and scrub trees, with many small villages where people eke out a living by herding cattle, goats or sheep, and fishing in the river. The weather in Senegal was a lot colder at this time of year than I expected but the desert was definitely as bone dry as I expected. One word sums up this part of the world: dust. It is everywhere, it gets in everything and the wind never seems to stop. As we drove for hours across the desert landscape, it felt like this was the last place on earth I would ever expect to find a manatee! We arrived in Ourosogui (bigger town near Navel), settled into the hotel and then went out to see the site.

The caravan on our way to Navel.

Sand blowing across the road. Windstorms are frequent in this part of the world.

Typical village along the road.

Before I came to Senegal I was told there were at least 15 manatees trapped behind a new dam off the Senegal River. However, I learned after I got here that it is a lot more complicated than that. As the Senegal River floods during the rainy season, it spreads into many small tributaries. People are successively damming these smaller branches to keep the water longer into the dry season and grow crops as the water recedes. It turns out there are manatees trapped in at least three different areas spread out over approximately 35km near the towns of Matam and Kanel. Navel was the most critical location because the water was falling the fastest and would leave the manatees high and dry long before the next rains begin.

The channel of water where manatees were trapped at Navel is approximately 600 meters long, ~14m wide and ~1.5m deep. I saw 5 noses in the chocolate milk water the first day when we scouted the area, but no one knew for sure at that time how many were there. A guardian had been hired to watch the manatees day and night, because some people here believe the breath of a manatee can kill a person, so they will try to kill them.

The site: the hillside is alot steeper than it looks in the photo.

Walking around the incredibly dry landscape, it's hard to believe there are manatees here!

Ali San, the manatee guardian who camped at the site to make sure the manatees were safe from harm until they could be rescued.

After visiting the site, I trained Victor and Pablo how to assemble the satellite tags which we planned to put on several of the manatees to track their movements. Unfortunately we had some difficulties with the lithium battery packs, so we only ended up with enough batteries for 3 tags, rather than the 5 we brought. But any data we get will be important: not much is known about manatee migration patterns in the Senegal River, their habitat requirements or even how many manatees there are. In the meantime, back at the capture site, workers cleared a path in the hillside so that we could back a trailer attached to a tractor (generously loaned by SAED, the Fisheries Dept.) down the hill to the water's edge. (photo by P. de Larrinoa, CBD-Habitat)
On the morning of 14 January fishermen from Navel and Matam entered the waterway with nets and captured 3 manatees. It was nerve-wracking because the fishermen just sort of “wing it” and not much is coordinated. As the manatees were brought to shore, literally hundreds of people who had assembled along the shoreline descended upon the manatees, most eager to see them, but some wanting to beat them. We had arranged for police officers for protection, but it felt like nothing compared to the huge crowd pressing in. We were only able to accommodate 2 manatees in the trailer, so the fishermen loaded an adult and a sub-adult, and we left the third manatee with several policemen and biologists to watch it while we drove the first two to the release site several kilometers away.

It's hard to see the manatee in the middle! (photo by C. Schwarz)I have to say I have never experienced such chaos during manatee captures ever before. People literally ran up to the trailer, grabbing and trying to fling themselves in, caught up in the hysteria of the crowd. People were lined up along the road the entire 3km route and a convoy of trucks and cars followed behind us, all filled to the brim with people yelling. There was absolutely no restraint by the people so I was glad for the 3 police officers in the trailer with us.
Inside the trailer our work space was very confined due to the 2 manatees, our equipment and about 10 people. We mostly had to work while the trailer was moving, because stopping for any length of time meant the crowds descended on us again. This meant that there was alot of data we just could not collect (some basic measurements, blood draw for baseline health information, etc.). We did what we could (I also needed to train the other biologists since most of them had not worked with manatees before) and we got most measurements, genetic samples and determined the sex on all of the manatees over the two days of captures. I also trained the biologists how to attach the tracking gear.

(photo: T. Diagne)

(photo: P. de Larrinoa)

Veterinary student Prisca gets ready to take a genetic sample.
Demonstrating belt attachment around the manatee's tail. The tag is attached to this by a tether. (photo: T. Diagne)On their way to the release site, the manatees were transported across the new dam that had trapped them in the first place. Thousands more people were waiting at the release site. We released the first 2 manatees (one with a tag) and headed back for the third. Apparently while we were gone, some of the people had panicked that the manatee was going to die before we returned, so they had tried to load it into a pickup truck. There was nothing wrong with the manatee, it had been kept in the shade and water was poured over it to keep it cool. Unlike dolphins, manatees can comfortably stay out of the water on land for several hours as long as they are monitored and kept cool, because their solid rib bones support their internal organs. But the people watching it did not know this, and in the confusion I had not thought to tell them. We loaded it in the trailer and repeated the trip to the release site. This manatee was also a male and we tagged it as well.

The crowd presses in as we try to get the manatee out of the trailer and into the Senegal River (photo: T. Diagne)

The moment of release!

After that the fishermen decided they would not continue that day. A meeting was called and the Matam fishermen demanded a lot more money to continue helping with the captures. The thing was, we really didn’t need all the huge numbers of people in the water anyway, and the fishermen didn’t realize that the 15 or so biologists present could just as easily catch the manatees without them. So we called their bluff and the next day it was just the biologists and the Navel fishermen back at the capture site. Fewer people turned up to watch as well. This turned out to be so much better, there was less chaos and a lot better communication between everyone, so the whole day was a lot more relaxed. We caught 2 more manatees (a female and a huge adult male) and tagged the female. After that the creek was searched until we were satisfied all the manatees were out.

Day two and we still had plenty of people to help carry the captured manatees down the creek to the loading site!

So in the end we rescued 3 males and 2 females, and we tagged 2 males and 1 female. When it was finished we met with the Navel village elders to thank them for their help. (photo: T. Diagne)

There were several film crews there as well- this is Madame Thiam of Senegal National Parks giving an interview. I also gave an interview but fumbled my French halfway through, the next day it was played on national TV and they didn’t edit when I lapsed into English and then said “Oops!”. So that’s my graceful moment on Senegal TV.
Since their release the tagged manatees have been doing some very interesting things. The 2 males made big moves away from the release site, one to the north and one to the south, towards Mali (these sprints are the manatee equivalent of “get me outta here!”). But after several days both stopped and they are likely feeding. There was no natural food at this time of year in the creek where they were trapped, so plants were provided for them, but I’m sure they were very hungry. Luckily none were too thin when we caught them. The female moved slightly to the north but settled down more quickly.

Here is a map as of 26 Jan. (courtesy of CBD-Habitat) to show you their movements in the river. Battery life in the tags is 6 months, so we hope to learn alot about their seasonal movements. The red arrow shows the release site. The red blob and flag are the male manatee who moved north, the yellow is the female and the blue is the male headed towards Mali.At the end of the operation we all felt it was a big success. Our great team included biologists from 4 countries. Pictured are (back row): Junior (CBD-Habitat, Guinea-Bissau), Prisca (veterinary student, Senegal), Iris (CBD-Habitat, Guinea-Bissau), Pablo (CBD-Habitat, Spain). In front: Luis Mariano (Spain), Tomas (Oceanium Dakar, Senegal), Lucy (Wildlife Trust, USA) and Cristina (CBD-Habitat, Guinea-Bissau). Not pictured are Paco and Victor from Spain, Luis from CBD-Habitat, Guinea-Bissau and Papis from Senegal.

Mission Senegal

Happy 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 Dakar on Sunday night and I'm very excited. Aside from helping these particular manatees, the opportunity to finally see a live West African Manatee up close is something I've been waiting 3 years for! And we should also be able to collect valuable data from these guys.

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In the past two weeks I've been working with a Spanish NGO, Fundacion CBD-Habitat, who wants to tag some of the manatees when we release them, in order to understand their movement patterns. This is important both so that manatees will not get trapped behind this dam in the future, but there are also 3 other dams planned, so understanding their seasonal habitat use is a high priority. CBD-Habitat normally works with Mediterranean Monk Seals (near and dear to my heart since I spent 4 years working with Hawaiian Monk Seals in the 1990's) but they have never tagged manatees before, which is entirely different. Seal tags are glued directly to the seal's fur, but a manatee tag is a floating buoy attached to the manatee by a belt around the tail and a tether to the tag. So I agreed to help them buy the correct tagging gear from colleagues in Florida (there isn't enough time to order new equipment, which can take 6 months to build, but it is very important to use equipment that has previously been used for manatees in order to insure the safety of the manatee and the accuracy of the data) and I will attach the gear to the manatees in Senegal, training Pablo from CBD-Habitat at the same time.

Getting tagging gear bought and shipped from Florida to Spain to Senegal over the holidays when most businesses are closed and alot of components are required has taken a monumental effort from my friends and colleagues who work with Florida manatees, so I want to especially thank Monica, Chip and Margie for making this happen! And also Pablo for working so quickly and well to achieve this.

So here's an overview of where I am going. On this Google Earth map of Senegal I've put a red box around the rescue location at Matam, which is a 10 hour drive from Dakar. The yellow line is the Senegal River, the border between Senegal and Mauritania. Despite the patches of green in the photo, Matam is literally at the western border of the Sahara, or Sahel as it is called in Africa. It will definitely been a new part of the world for me.

More news when I get there...

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 them, because they were the first funders to award me money for my work in Gabon. This time the money is especially appreciated so that I can continue my work here this year... in these tough economic times it is hard to sustain a project like this. So a huge thanks to Columbus and the people there who made this funding possible!

Gabon Magazine

My 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 in the upper left hand corner and select page 28.

Unfortunately they had to use photos of Florida manatees, because there really are no good pictures of wild West African manatees in clear water in all of Africa! Like Florida manatees, they mostly inhabit murky, dark water where it is hard to photograph them, and they are much shier than their American cousins. The editors made the text alot more "British" than my original writing (it's published in London), but it's still a decent article and gets the basic facts across so I'm happy with it.

Meanwhile, in Senegal...

For the past month my colleagues in Senegal have been dealing with a difficult manatee situation. Thanks to a new dam built on an arm of the Senegal River at Matam (a town on the northeastern border of Senegal), some manatees are now trapped above the dam. It is believed that waterway is an annual migration route for the manatees, so they swam through the dam gates when the water was high, but now the water level has fallen and the manatees are stranded as the water dries up. At this point I don't think it is possible for them to swim back through the dam, even if the gates were opened and/or herding them to the dam would be impossible. It has now been determined that there are at least 15 manatees trapped in this area. The water is very muddy so it is only possible to see manatee noses when they surface, and some areas are still quite deep, but as the waters dry up the animals will eventually be stranded. One manatee has already been found dead up against the dam grates.

Several organizations in Senegal have been coordinating efforts to rescue the manatees and transport them back out to the main part of the river. In late November they went out and were able to capture 2 manatees using local fishermen's nets and a pickup truck to transport them. However, there was also alot of chaos as many people tried to help with almost no expertise and very little equipment.

Here are a few photos my friend Tomas Diagne sent: 3 manatee noses visible in the river

A manatee is transported by pickup truck at night to the release site

Releasing a manatee back into the Senegal River

So now the next round of rescues has been scheduled for early January. I have been asked to come up to assist with capture planning, training for rescuers and to participate in the whole operation. This is an incredibly valuable opportunity to help build capacity in the region, collect samples from this very rare species and train researchers there. So I am going to go for a couple weeks. Right now I'm spending a bit of time discussing logistics on email, but I'll write more as plans progress. I'm also back in Libreville now, after a successful 6 weeks of work at N'dogo Lagoon.

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 determine the sex, how to collect genetics and ear bones). It will be very helpful to have other people trained if a carcass turns up when I'm not here, and it will help increase understanding of the manatee population in this lagoon to have samples collected year-round. I was impressed with the questions the guys asked and look forward to working with them more next year.

One on one discussion with Anselm about sample collection

On Friday afternoon I went back up to Sette Cama. I drove up with Jean-Pierre Baye, an energetic guy who started the local sea turtle NGO here, Ibonga. He arranged for me to speak at 2 schools this weekend. So on Saturday morning I gave my first manatee presentation to elementary school kids and their teachers in Sette Cama. I had a power point presentation, some video clips of manatees, and I gave out the French manatee coloring books that I helped produce with Save the Manatee Club. It went well and they had interesting questions- there are alot of myths about manatees here so questions ranged from how long the gestation period is for a manatee (Answer: it is believed to be 13 months, but it's not scientifically confirmed for the species yet), to whether or not it is true that they eat human cadavers (it is not!). Unfortunately the second school presentation was cancelled at the last minute because the school director had a death in the family, but I'll be able to go there when I'm back in the area next Fall.

At the end the teachers and some of the kids wanted a group photo with the coloring books.

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 just to the north. It raised red flags to hear about 3 carcasses in close proximity, especially after we have been experiencing similar mortality here in northern N'dogo. It is an extremely remote area (4 hour boat ride from the village where WCS has a base) and my colleague Ruth, who heard about the carcasses, could not get there due to broken boats, no fuel and staff issues. She will try to get there today, which is a hugely generous effort considering she is not a manatee biologist and has alot of other work on her plate. (And oh yes, HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY Ruth!)

I'm in Gamba and managed to get a really nasty cold at the end of last week that kept me bedridden with a fever for 3 days. Meanwhile I was planning to do boat surveys of southern N'dogo Lagoon this week, but the entire town of Gamba is out of fuel. This is especially ironic because Gamba wouldn't exist if it weren't for the Shell oil concession here, but apparently the fuel has to go several hundred miles north to be refined and then is shipped all the way back here for use. So no surveys. Instead I am preparing a training workshop for ecoguides that I will teach here at the end of the week and a school presentation I will give at 2 schools next weekend.

I was talking to a new friend this morning who just moved here from Holland (her husband works for Shell) and we were discussing the fact that living/working here takes alot of getting used to. People in our home countries don't always comprehend why things take so long, why you can't just get your work done. She is in the frustration stage at how hard it is to accomplish even the simplest thing, like buying gas or having running water that works so you can bathe. I am more at the acceptance stage. It can still definitely be frustrating, but I have learned that I have to spend more time in Africa to accomplish the work. Logistics are never going to be easy, it's just Africa. But the reward is that the more I'm here, the more I learn and the more people realize I'm in it for the long-term, so they share more information, and they know to tell me when they hear manatee news. And there are so many great people here working so hard for conservation, that I am continually inspired and then I forget the inconveniences. So I'll keep at it...