Lambarene After Kango, Nic and I travelled to Lambarene, a larger town on the Ogooue River and the fishing capital of Gabon. South of Lambarene there’s a series of large lakes (if you scroll down to my Sept. 17 posting, you can see Lambarene, the river and the lakes near the top of the map). It’s a freshwater system; there isn’t much fishing in the […]

More Pictures from KangoThe morning’s bushmeat catch coming into the market at Kango. They have a small crocodile, a monkey and 2 porcupine-like animals. I must say it’s hard to see first hand. Seeing it in a magazine in the states I think “what a shame”, but here, seeing the huge numbers of animals coming into the markets each day from the forests, it’s really

Kango It’s been a busy week! On Sept. 21 Nic and I got a ride to a small town called Kango, about a 2 hour drive inland from the capital of Gabon, Libreville. Kango is located at the convergence of several rivers, and a couple years ago Nic and Tim photographed a manatee hunter there with a carcass. We were able to go back and

Leaving Mayumba My week here has flown and I wish I could stay longer! Below are a few more pics from my very nice stay here! The living & working quarters at Mayumba national parkJacquie & Simon on the boat Ant (short for Anthony!) with his barracuda Tim in his happy place.Pretty butterfly from the forest. Today I’m flying to Libreville, tomorrow Nick and I

Banio Lagoon Just returned from 2 days of surveying all the major rivers on this lagoon. Stayed in this wonderful house with lagoon on one side, beach on the other and savannah all around it. Ate a wonderful salad from the garden. One bummer- I walked out t o the beach and found alot of fresh oil. There are alot of oil rigs off the

Monday Today I’m heading to a remote camp today for 2 days… it’s actually a beautiful house on the lagoon with the ocean on the other side & a fresh veggie garden (a real luxury here). They say there’s a gorilla troop nearby that comes right up to the house in the morning, and forest elephants on the beach. I’ll be surveying a couple rivers

This is the area of Gabon that I’m working in. Libreville (capital) is off the map to the north. I’m currently in Mayumba, next week I’ll visit Kango and Lambarene, then probably go to Iguela and Sette Cama for several weeks each. There are very few roads, so we’ll mostly fly from site to site.

Juvenile Green Sea Turtle Yesterday a fisherman brought in a live sea turtle that had accidentally gotten caught in his net. Pictured at left is Solange Ngoouessono, the Gabonese manager of Mayumba national park, with Tim and the fisherman (in yellow). It’s great that he reported the turtle. Unfortunately it was covered in fibropapilloma tumors, which are now frequently seen in sea turtles worldwide. It

Nick and the former manatee hunter, Soami at a tower the EcoGuides have built for offshore observation. The beach off Mayumba. We saw buffalo tracks everywhere and there are lowland gorillas here too. Didn’t see one yet though- you’ll know when I do! Nick and I (with driver Papa) surveying a river where Soami tells us is best in the area for manatees. Unfortunately fallen