A First for Africa: Tracking Bazaruto’s Dugongs

Satellite tagging is the next step in ensuring the survival of East Africa’s critically endangered dugong population. Together with local communities, the Mozambican Government and James Cook University, African Parks leads a dugong tagging project in Bazaruto Archipelago National Park to better understand the movement of these elusive marine mammals for strategic conservation efforts. Using the expertise of leading dugong tagging expert, Dr Christophe Cleguer, the local team was trained over a three-week period while tagging 11 dugongs. The data from these tags, which corrode and break off after about six months, provides valuable information on dugong range, migration patterns, and feeding grounds, contributing to better local and global dugong conservation efforts. This project comes after the Bazaruto research team spearheaded the relisting of East Africa’s dugong population to Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2022, acknowledging the importance of protecting these animals by giving them the highest possible global protection.

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