Yesterday Victor was released into Banio Lagoon in southern Gabon, just outside the enclosure where he has been raised for the past 3 years. In the past few weeks, thanks to the supervision and dedicated effort of Jonathan, Victor was able to re-gain some weight and was deemed to be in good enough health to be released. He was fitted with a specially made belt […]
Victor is released!! Read More »
Yesterday I spent a very pleasant afternoon talking with Michael Scholl, the Director of Save Our Seas Foundation. Michael happened to be in Florida for meetings and asked to come by Gainesville to meet with me….it’s not everyday that the Director of one of my funders stops by! It was a really nice opportunity to hear about some of the new initiatives the organization will
Save Our Seas Foundation Visitor Read More »
It’s been awhile since I’ve written about Victor, the orphan manatee being raised in Gabon. Unfortunately there’s been a setback in his care that has resulted in his losing quite a bit of weight. Last winter and spring, Victor’s local caretakers were left on their own to do their job without supervision. They had been fully trained and knew their job, so it shouldn’t have
Gabon: Victor’s setback Read More »
I think the Eaux et Forêts (Water and Forestry) Ministry building in Libreville is the coolest government office building I’ve ever seen; it was clearly modeled after the Weebles tree house kids used to play with in the 1980’s! Complete with the Weeble-like giant plastic flat-topped trees out front. I like the sense of fun this building exudes. It’s just ironic that everyone inside it
Gabon: sample export Read More »
After the workshop I accompanied Heather and Cyrille out to their ecotourism site on Lac Oguemoue for a few days. Even though it’s dry season and I didn’t expect to see manatees, I’d never been to most of the large lakes off the Ogooue River before, and it was a chance to talk to local people and see the habitat. Although many of the lakes
Gabon: Ogooue Lake surveys Read More »
From September 2-6 I held a manatee training workshop in Lambarene. There were 12 participants from 6 organizations (including Oganisation Ecotouristique de Lac Oguemoue (OELO, Gabonese NGO), World Wildlife Fund, Gabon Fisheries, Gabon Water and Forestry, University of Dschang, Cameroon and African Marine Mammal Conservation Association, Cameroon). Five of the participants were women, the highest number I’ve ever had in a workshop to date. Lectures covered manatee
Gabon: Manatee Training Workshop Read More »
With my Gabon research permit in hand and a week of meetings completed, I was finally ready to leave Libreville on 31 August. My Cameroonian colleagues Aristide and Rodrigue had flown in from Yaounde and met me in Libreville. I’ve written about Aristide before, he’s leading manatee research in Cameroon, starting the country’s first marine mammal stranding network, and training other Cameroonian students in manatee
I’m flying to Gabon on Thursday, my first trip there since 2011. After a short stay in Libreville to get my permits and have some meetings, I’ll be heading to Lambaréné in the interior. I haven’t spent time in Lambaréné since 2006 and it’s an important place as the unfortunate center of manatee hunting for Gabon. Lambaréné sits on the mighty Ogooue River and lies west of a
Some good news for the start of the week: I received notification from the Society for Marine Mammalogy that I’ve received a student travel award to attend their conference in New Zealand next December. I’ll present some of my African manatee genetics dissertation work as a poster, and I also hope to give a talk at the Sirenian Workshop before the conference. Also, my colleague
