Keywords
African manatee
Population
Conservation
How to Cite
Abstract
The study on the distribution, abundance and habitat use of the West African manatee in Pandam Lake through Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) was conducted between 2010 and 2012. Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) approach (questionnaire and focus group discussion) was adopted. One hundred and twenty (120) questionnaires were distributed to all the fishermen in
Pandam, Aningo and Sabongida villages in the study area with eight groups created from the fishermen. Descriptive analysis was used for data collected while data on years of fishing experience were correlated with data on abundance. Age of the respondents ranged from 21 to 80years with 10 60years of fishing experience. All the respondents had sighted manatee in manatee stream (MS), GU and Zuzurfar arm (ZU) but 54.17% did not sight manatee in the main Lake (ML). Also 63.33% (n=76) usually sight manatee >4 times/month in the dry season while 0.83% (n=1) usually sight manatee >4 times/month in the wet season. 63% (n=75) of the respondents sight manatee mostly in the evening (18-21hr), 27% (n=33) sight manatee mostly in the early hours (5-11hr). Sighting of 2 3 manatees together is more common 56.67% (n=68) of the respondents, 33.33% (n=40) mostly sight 1 manatee while 10% (n=12) mostly sight 4-6 manatees together but none of them sighted >6 manatees together. Manatee presence indices include: Grazed bank vegetation, Torn net, Trails or cloud of mud, Dung, oil extract and bone from dead manatee. Manatee was said to be feeding on Echinocloa stagnina, Echinocloa pyramidalis, Polygonum lanigerium, and Nymphea lotus. This study has clearly shown that TEK can be used as an important instrument to collect baseline information that will enhance the field ecological study and that effective conservation strategy can be achieved by integrating local communities’ knowledge in conservation programs especially when dealing with species that are difficult to study like manatee. For this reason, recommendation related to manatee conservation or a management plan, should not only rely on ecological field result but,
take into consideration the perception and recommendations from the local population regarding manatee.
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