First Recordings of African Manatee Vocalizations in the Wild

Loggerhead Instruments' LS1 has been successfully deployed in Lake Ossa, Cameroon to record vocalizations from the African manatee, also known as the West African manatee. The African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization (AMMCO) collaborated with an international team (Eric Angel Ramos from City University of New York, Athena Rycyk from New College of Florida and Mumi Kikuchi from Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University) to collect over 800 African manatee vocalizations.
The African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis) can be found along the western coast of Africa, ranging from Senegal to Angola. AMMCO and their partners hope to use the vocalization data to assess the impact of the proliferation of giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta), an invasive, floating aquatic fern which may be negatively impacting the manatees. The team also hopes to use the new equipment to acoustically monitor for other aquatic megafauna such as cetaceans.

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