Jonathan Perez-Rivera left Gabon last night after spending the past 4 months working with orphan calf Victor and training his Gabonese caretakers. Victor is now steadily gaining weight and we're learning valuable new information about the growth of West African manatees through the data Jonathan carefully collected. We hope he can return to Gabon to continue working with Victor once he finishes his Masters degree in Puerto Rico. He has done a fantastic job and I'm very impressed with his efforts despite very remote and rustic field conditions.
Jonathan and I met up in Libreville this past weekend and spent both days discussing Victor's present and future, as well as other possible future work he might do for manatees in Africa. And of course we had time for a farewell beer at the Tropicana before he flew home on Sunday night! Cheers and safe travels Jonathan!
Victor, the orphan manatee calf being rehabilitated in southern Gabon has now reached 30kg! This is a good milestone because it has taken a long time for him to steadily gain weight. When he was rescued he weighed 27 kg, but he lost weight for awhile before he adjusted to his diet of soy milk. For manatees (unlike people) fat is good! West African manatees are generally smaller than their cousins the Florida manatee, but no one has ever raised an African calf in captivity for this long before, so we don't know what normal growth is. Victor is providing his caregivers, consulting vets, and everyone else involved lots of new information. 
Very exciting news from Senegal.... a manatee hunter whose family has been working in the Casamance River for generations has decided to end all manatee hunting and work towards manatee conservation! Last week he gave his harpoon to Tomas Diagne, a manatee researcher in Senegal, as a symbol of his decision. Oceanium Dakar and Tomas have been working with the hunter's community of Pt. St. George in the Casamance for several years, because they have a spring where manatees come to drink freshwater each day. 
Uzoma Edijmadu is a PhD student in Lagos, Nigeria studying manatees in Badegry Lagoon. He uses his new secchi disk to check water clarity, which is important to understand where aquatic plants (manatee salad!) are capable of growing. 
The new depth sounders are great because they not only give the depth of the water (very important when searching for manatees in murky rivers and lagoons), but also the water temperature, all with the click of a single button! 
Bolaji Dunsin of the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research, who collaborates with Uzoma, checks their location on their new GPS while surveying Badegry Lagoon in western Nigeria. 
Victor sill needs to be bottle fed every few hours
Taking Victor's weight. They'll need a bigger scale as he grows!