A Day of Drifting and the Manatee HunterOn Sunday I went back up the Congo River, once again hoping to see manatees. By now I’ve started to get a pretty good sense of the area. We go up the main river for about an hour before turning off into a tributary. Heading up the Congo River from the mouth, in the early morning calmAt the […]

Manatee Sighted! Sorry for the silence, the wireless internet has been down here for several days and there was no other way for me to get online. On Thursday we headed back up the Congo River to Kibaka, one of the first villages we visited on Tuesday. Two men there told us more about the local manatee hunter (luckily there is apparently only one in

Greetings from Angola At long last, I am here in northern Angola at the mouth of the Congo River. This study has been two years in the making and is a survey effort for manatees, cetaceans (mostly humpback whales and humpback dolphins) and sea turtles. I am working with WCS colleagues who I also collaborate with for work in Gabon, and I’m very happy to

Manatees In Ghana Click here to see a nice news article that just came out on Patrick Ofori–Dansen and manatees in Ghana (although the author made a few errors- manatees and dugongs are not the same, manatees do not show their teats when they surface to breathe and although their eyesight probably isn’t great, they are not blind). However, I was especially happy to read

Another Gabon season ends It has been another wonderful few months in Gabon this Fall, and as always there are many people to thank for enthusiastic support of my work there. First and foremost I thank the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Wildlife Trust, WCS – CCRP (Marine Program), the WCS Gabon Program (Africa Program) and the government of Gabon. In particular, the following individuals provided

Late night happiness at Pongara On the spur of the moment the other night I decided to join friends Miguel, Josie, Ruth and her 2 friends from England on an overnight to Pongara National Park, across the estuary from Libreville. Pongara has one of the world’s highest densities of leatherback sea turtle nests and right now is the peak nesting season. Some of you may

Kalahari What do marine biologists do for vacation? They go to the desert! I just spent a fantastic week in the Kalahari Desert at Kgalagadi Transboundary National Park, which is in the northwest corner of South Africa and includes portions of Botswana and Namibia (hence the name). A group of 8 of us drove up from Cape Town (15 hours) and stayed at three different

SMM Conference Now that most of my work for the conference is over, I have time to actually sit back and enjoy the rest of the talks. On Tuesday I presented my poster at the Sirenian Workshop and heard great talks from sirenian researchers from around the world. Yesterday I gave my spoken presentation at the main conference which was a bit nerve-wracking, but no

Kirstenbosch On Wednesday I went to Kirstenbosch, the national botanical garden, with friends Colby, Susan and Susan’s husband Jeff (who is a botanist). Another perfect sunny and cool day and the gardens were breathtaking. Fun to be there with Jeff who is a Cycad fanatic and excited as a little kid over the ancient trees. Proteas, the national and very unique flower, with the mountain