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University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting Template PHYLOGENETICS AND FEEDING ECOLOGY OF THE AFRICAN MANATEE, Trichechus senegalensis By LUCY WARD KEITH DIAGNE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 © 2014 Lucy Ward Keith Diagne To my father, Allan Reed Keith, for his love and for instilling in me a love of nature and life-long learning, and to my husband, Tomas Diagne, for his unwavering love and support. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This doctorate never would have been accomplished without substantial support and collaboration from many people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. I am so grateful to everyone who has helped me and believed in me. First I would like to thank Dr. Ruth Francis-Floyd and Dr. Charles Courtney, who recruited me and made it possible for me to come to UF. I’m also thankful for the immense and always friendly help of Sally O’Connell, who made sure I was registered for classes even when I was in the Sahara desert, and to the Aquatic Animal Health Program, which generously provided financial support. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have a dream team committee and I have very much appreciated all of their constant interest in, and enthusiasm for, my work. I’m certain there are not enough words to express my gratitude to my chair, Dr. Roger Reep, for all his guidance, good advice, and thought-provoking questions. Thank you Roger, and may you have a magnificent retirement! For the past 16 years, Dr. Robert Bonde has been a wonderful source of knowledge of all aspects of manatee biology for me, and he convinced me that I should use genetics to study the African manatee. He also was instrumental in helping me to import many of the samples used in this research. Dr. James “Buddy” Powell not only helped me to get to Africa in the first place, but has been a trusted advisor and a great boss for many years. I am honored to follow his footsteps in Africa. I’m profoundly grateful to Dr. Margaret Hunter for teaching me genetics techniques, for sharing her immense knowledge of the subject, and for her friendship. Dr. Karen Bjorndal has been a patient advisor and I have greatly appreciated her thought-provoking questions. I thank Dr. Amanda Demopoulos for inspiring me to do 4 stable isotope work and for opening her lab to me, and for daily guidance in learning the analysis techniques. I also thank Dr. John Krigbaum for all his help sampling the manatee bone and for our good discussions about the study of stable isotopes. Dr. David Reed and Dr. Mike Miyamoto, thank you both for challenging me to think about genetics in new ways, and for everything I learned in both of your classes, which were the two best I took during my time at UF. Thanks to Katie Brill and Dr. Miriam Marmontel for their collaboration on the aging study of manatee ear bones, and I look forward to publishing that work with you both. And a very special thanks to my two eleventh hour heroes, Dr. Shichao Chen and Richie Hodel, for their work on the divergence dating analysis for Chapter 3. I have been fortunate to have wonderful lab mates at USGS, and I thank Michelle Davis, Gaia Meigs-Fried, John Butterfield, and Theresa Floyd for teaching and helping me every step of the way in the genetics lab, and Jennie McClain-Counts for all her great help and advice in the stable isotope lab. Big thanks to Mat Denton for patiently teaching me the SIAR program for my analyses, and to Michelle Quach for her help weighing some of my isotope samples. I’d also like to thank all the staff of the USGS Southeast Science Center, who have welcomed me there and made me feel like part of the family. In Africa I’ve been privileged to work with many very dedicated and hard-working collaborators, all of whom I also consider friends. Most of all I thank my dear friend Tim Collins for introducing me to Africa, for keeping me laughing, and for always being there for me. I’m greatly indebted to Aristide Kamla Takoukam, Heather Arrowood, Cyrille 5 Mvele, Jonathan Perez-Rivera, Dr. Matt Shirley, Captain Abba Sonko, Soumaila Berthe, Colonel Soumana Timbo, Dr. Patrick Ofori-Dansen, Josea Dossou-Bodjrénou, Severin Tchibozo, Dr. Gianna Minton, Aissa Regalla, and Dr. Kouame Djaha for sample collection and export. Dr. Angela Formia, Aimee Sanders Parnell, Ruth Starkey, Dr. Kath Jeffrey, Bas Huijbregts, Solange Ngouessono, Stephane Louembet, Dr. Hilde VanLeeuwe, Dr. Rich Parnell, Tomo Nishihara, Dr. Josie Demmer, Niaga Boh, Haidar El Ali, Bolaji Dunsin, Dr. Uzoma Ejimadu, Dr. Ken Cameron, Dawda Saine, Betania Ferreira, Dr. Edem Eniang, Abdoulaye Bine Guindo, and Alfousseini Semega all greatly helped my fieldwork and logistics, but it isn’t enough to leave it at that, because every one of these people went way above and beyond for me. I am so happy and thankful to have all of you in my life. I also thank Alain Seck of the IFAN Museum in Dakar for allowing me to destructively sample their manatee skull collection, and Nicole Auil- Gomez and Dr. Tony Mignucci for providing samples for this study. To the many other people who work hard every day to study and conserve the African manatee, I thank you for all your efforts to understand and protect this unique species. At Sea to Shore Alliance I’m very grateful for all the support and camaraderie of Susan Kahraman, Cyndi Taylor, and Monica Ross, and for the best board of directors I’ve ever worked with. Raising all the funds necessary to build the African manatee research and conservation project in multiple countries over the past nine years, and doing all the field and office work in addition to my doctoral program has been challenging, but I feel honored to have the loyal support of my funders who have made it possible: Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Conservation Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Wildlife Without Borders Africa Program, U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, 6 Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, Save Our Seas Foundation, and Save Our Species. I also gratefully acknowledge past project funding from Save the Manatee Club, Sea World and Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, Idea Wild, Earthwatch Institute, and the Bay and Paul Foundations. I doubt I would’ve survived the last five years with most of my sanity intact without the good humor and support of many excellent friends. I’m especially indebted to Michelle Davis (who has been with me every step of the way and deserves extra special thanks for putting up with me in so many classes, the lab, and even providing me a place to live when I first came to Gainesville!), Susan Butler, Jim Reid, Cathy Beck (who, along with Bob Bonde, also gave me a place to live for several months), Susan Kahraman, Nicole Adimey, Suzanne Tarr Williams, Jackie Speake, Sabrina Davies, Vivian Dwyer, and Sheri Hall Proft. Whether near or far, thank you all for being there for all the laughs, tears, and many glasses of wine. My family has always believed that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to, and their belief instilled in me a fearlessness and passion that has allowed me to achieve a remarkably rewarding life and career. I can never thank my parents- Allan and Winkie, my sister Tess Keith, my sister Coral Rabey, my brother-in-law Steve Rabey, and my nephew and niece Max and Sky, enough for their unwavering love and encouragement. Thanks also to my extended family, who has also always been so enthusiastic about everything I do, and to Tomas’s family in Senegal, who have all taken me into their hearts. Most importantly I thank my husband, Tomas Diagne, who not only is the love of my life, but who has gone to incredible lengths to help me succeed, including renting 7 cars and driving up to 16 hours through the night in Senegal to collect manatee samples for me while I was in school, and opening many doors in the world of conservation in Africa for me. Thank you for always believing in me, and for being the best partner in love, life, and wildlife conservation that I could’ve ever dreamt of. As you once said to me, “You are one specimen that I look forward to studying for the rest of my life!” 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 12 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 13 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 17 Sirenian Evolution ................................................................................................... 17 The Earliest Sirenians ...................................................................................... 18 Family Dugongidae .......................................................................................... 20 Family Trichechidae ......................................................................................... 22 African Manatee Evolution ................................................................................ 28 Current Status of the African Manatee .................................................................... 31 Mauritania ......................................................................................................... 34 Senegal ...........................................................................................................
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