WELCOME TO THE SILENT WORLD: DISCOVERING THE POPULATION GENETICS OF THE MEXICAN MANATEES TO PROTECT THEM

The Caribbean manatee (Trichechus manatus) is an endangered species that occupies the Atlantic tropical coastal waters extending from Florida along Central and South America to Brazil. Historically, manatees were abundant in Mexico, but hunting during the pre-Columbian period, the Spanish colonization and throughout the history of Mexico has resulted in the significantly reduced population occupying Mexico today. To address management and conservation issues we determined the population structure and individual identity of the manatee in Mexico and the pedigree of captive manatees using microsatellites markers.

During the development of her Master’s thesis from the University of Méditerranée Aix-Marseille II, in collaboration with the University of Florida and the USGS Sirenia Project, Coralie worked in Florida on a project addressing the population genetics of Florida manatees. She continued to work with manatee populations in Mexico during her Doctoral studies and later on, focusing on aspects such as genetic diversity, population structure, identification and pedigree analysis. She has also been collaborating with ICMBio in Brazil on manatee research. Coralie has recently joined CIBIO-InBIO, where she intends to continue to pursue her research interests, which comprise the use of molecular biology and genetics to generate useful information to improve knowledge and conservation of species, including marine mammals.

Image credits: Coralie Nourisson