Saving the mysterious African manatee in Cameroon

CAMEROON – Ever since his first hard-won sightings of African manatees, award-winning marine biologist Aristide Takoukam Kamla has been devoted to protecting the little-known and at-risk aquatic mammals.

African manatees are found in fresh water along the coast of western Africa, such as in Cameroon’s vast Lake Ossa, where the researcher first saw them more than 10 years ago.

But they are shy creatures. Spotting them requires setting out before dawn, when the lake is glassy and tranquil – all the better for following the trails of bubbles and, maybe, just maybe, catching two big nostrils taking a quick breath.

“I was expecting to see them like on YouTube: in clear water, jumping like dolphins... a completely surreal idea” stemming from publications on manatees in Florida, said the 39-year-old Cameroonian.

The manatees’ African cousins, however, are very different, and the then University of Dschang apprentice researcher had to row for a long time before being rewarded.

Thanks to local fishermen, Dr Takoukam Kamla has now learnt how to spot African manatees more easily within the dark depths of the 4,500ha Lake Ossa, part of a sprawling wildlife reserve in south-western Cameroon.

The African manatee is his favourite animal, the subject of his doctorate at the University of Florida – and the reason he won the 2024 prestigious Whitley Award, which recognises ground-breaking biodiversity work by grassroots conservationists.

Endangered habitat, poaching

American scientist Sarah Farinelli was moved to tears after seeing five African manatees, including a female with her calf, while out on the lake with Dr Takoukam Kamla.

“There are certain places in Africa where it’s impossible to see them,” said Dr Farinelli, who is in her 30s and studies the marine mammals in Nigeria.

Much still eludes researchers about the Trichechus senegalensis – how many are in Cameroon; how long do they live; when and where do they migrate.

African manatees are found between Mauritania and Angola, but “it’s a very little studied species, around which many mysteries still remain”, Dr Takoukam Kamla said.

Sometimes known as sea cows, the large marine herbivore is listed as “vulnerable” on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

But the Cameroonian scientist thinks that is “an underestimation of the real status of this species, which is subject to poaching” and whose habitat is “constantly in danger”.

Dr Takoukam Kamla set up the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organisation (Ammco), which has five laboratories, including in the lakeside fishing village of Dizangue.

In Lake Ossa, the animal’s sole predators are humans. Only a few years ago, manatees were still being served in the village restaurant.

Manatee hunting is now outlawed, and the dish has vanished from menus. A blue statue of a manatee has even been erected.

But threats remain.

Another one is the positioning of a net across the lake to maximise catches as it could “trap a small manatee in its mesh”, Dr Takoukam Kamla said, getting into a heated discussion with a fisherman in his dug-out canoe.

“We’re indigenous, we live off this, and we have never had to suffer prohibitions at home,” the fisherman grumbled bitterly. “If you want to impose bans on us, you will have to pay us every month.”

Biological combat

Relations between the scientists and local communities whose fishing traditions have been passed down generations are tricky.

But an environmental threat that struck three years ago brought their worlds together.

Half of the lake’s surface became covered by the invasive giant salvinia, a free-floating plant that made the lake uninhabitable for fish and manatees.

To combat it, the scientists used a weevil that feeds exclusively on salvinia and called on the fishermen to help.

“They used to take the salvinia infested with weevils and put a bit everywhere in the lake,” Ammco researcher Thierry Aviti said.

Three years on, the menacing plant has all but disappeared.

“At one point, we couldn’t cope any more”, but promises were kept, said Dizangue fisherman Thierry Bossambo, marked by memories of long nights with no fish.

The bridges built with the fishermen is something Dr Takoukam Kamla is keen to maintain to avoid “parachute science”, a term referring to scientists dropping into local communities from their academic ivory towers to undertake field work.

And to counter possible poaching, he wants to develop the area’s ecotourism.

It is a priority, agreed curator Gilbert Oum Ndjocka of the nearby Douala-Edea National Park, who said “all stakeholders are allies for conservation”. AFP