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0% of this project has been implemented.

Start Date
March 1, 2021
End Date
February 29, 2024

Project Summary

Little is known about Guinea’s African manatees. The manatee live along the coast and also deep into the interior of Guinea’s Niger and Gambia rivers. This will be the first dedicated research and conservation project in Guinea to focus on African manatee. This project will train Guinean researchers in African manatee research and conservation techniques, while also conducting a threat assessment of all manatee habitat use areas of the country. Biological samples will be collected opportunistically and analyzed to provide the first information about manatee population genetics, feeding ecology and habitat use in Guinea. Threat assessment results will be shared with wildlife law enforcement and we will also work with them to encourage their enforcement of laws to protect the species. Education programs as well as TV, radio, newspaper and other media announcements will raise awareness of the need to protect the manatee.


Objectives

Research: Identify range, collect biological samples for DNA analysis, count population numbers, identify and mitigate threats.

Practice: Train local Guinean researchers in Manatee conservation best practices.

Outreach: Raise awareness of the need to protect the manatee through traditional and social media.



Project location - Guinea, Africa

Field Reports


Its been a great month!

January 31, 2022

Dispatch from Dr Lucy Keith-Diagne, principle investigator for the manatee and dolphin projects in Guinea:

I’m now back in Conakry after a very successful few weeks traveling the entire littoral region of Guinea from Kamsar to Benty. We got lots of good information about manatees and their threats from our interviews, we had one manatee sighting and two sightings of Humpback dolphins. Also before we left Conakry at the beginning of the month we had meetings with CNSHB, Guinee Ecologie and Biotope, and we had two Guinean researchers on field trips with us. I’ve identified potential candidates for the manatee research training that I’ll begin in May.

It’s been a great month. This morning I’ve been invited to meet with Mr. Amadou Diallo, the incoming Chair of the International Whaling Commission and incoming President of COMHAFAT (ATLAFCO | Welcome (comhafat.org)), to talk about the manatee and Atlantic humpback dolphin projects. Another expert from CNSHB has also been invited to the meeting. Unfortunately we didn’t get any photos of the manatee (it surfaced once very quickly and then not again) nor the dolphins (which stayed very far ahead of the boat, so we only saw their splashes and one hump surface very briefly), but we did get GPS coordinates of the locations.