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Fewer than 10,000 African manatees (Trichechus senegalensis) are found in Western Africa. Threats to the African manatee include increasing hunting, construction of dams, and destruction of coastal areas from mangrove harvesting and siltation. In Senegal, African manatees get stranded into shallow seasonal waters where they eventually die of dehydration. Those “killing” waters are the result of dam construction along the Senegal River. With the help of the locals, Nature Tropicale, a non-profit organization based in Dakar, moves manatees to deep permanent water of the river where they belong. Photographs: Tomas Diagne
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