Large carnivores play a crucial role in their native ecosystems, but their populations are rapidly declining across the African continent. West Africa is no exception, with large protected areas often forming the last strongholds for these species. Little is known about the population status and ecology of large carnivores in the region, hampering the design and implementation of effective conservation strategies. We conducted a camera-trap survey during the dry season in Niokolo-Koba National Park, the largest terrestrial protected area in Senegal and the second largest in West Africa, to investigate the spatio-temporal ecology of the four large carnivores inhabiting the Park: the spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta, leopard Panthera pardus, West African lion Panthera leo leo and African wild dog Lycaon pictus. Spotted hyaenas and leopards had the widest spatial distribution and highest probability of site use. Spotted hyaena site use was positively associated with leopard relative abundance index and negatively associated with normalized difference vegetation index, whereas only distance to the nearest road influenced leopard site use. Distance to the Gambian River was the most important covariate positively affecting site use by lions. African wild dog site use was negatively associated with the relative abundance indices of lions and leopards. Lions, spotted hyaenas and leopards showed strong overlap in their activity patterns. By providing new information on the ecology of large carnivores in West Africa, including where they range and which habitats are critical for their survival, our study will facilitate conservation planning. Our findings lay the foundations for future research to conserve these threatened species in West Africa effectively and to guide ranger patrol efforts, which are key for their long-term survival.

Existing empirical literature provides converging evidence that selective emigration enhances human capital accumulation in the world's poorest countries. However, the within-country distribution of such brain gain effects has received limited attention. Focusing on Senegal, we provide evidence that the brain gain mechanism primarily benefits the wealthiest regions that are internationally connected and have better access to education. Conversely, human capital responses are negligible in regions lacking international connectivity, and even negative in better connected regions with inadequate educational opportunities. These results extend to internal migration, implying that highly vulnerable populations are trapped in the least developed areas.

The Allou Kagne (Senegal) deposit consists of different proportions of palygorskite and sepiolite, and these are associated with small quantities of quartz and X-ray amorphous silica as impurities. No pure palygorskite or sepiolite has been recognized by X-ray diffraction. Textural and microtextural features indicate that fibrous clay minerals of the Allou Kagne deposit were formed by direct precipitation from solution. Crystal-chemistry data obtained by analytical/transmission electron microscopy (AEM/TEM) analyses of isolated fibers show that the chemical composition of the particles varies over a wide range, from a composition corresponding to palygorskite to a composition intermediate between that of sepiolite and palygorskite, but particles with a composition corresponding to sepiolite have not been found. Taking into account the results from selected area electron diffraction and AEM-TEM, fibers of pure palygorskite and sepiolite have been found but it cannot be confirmed that all of the particles analyzed correspond to pure palygorskite or pure sepiolite because both minerals can occur together at the crystallite scale. In addition, the presence of Mg-rich palygorskite and very Al-rich sepiolite can be deduced.

It is infrequent in nature that palygorskite and sepiolite appear together because the conditions for simultaneous formation of the two minerals are very restricted. The chemical composition of the solution controls the formation of the Allou Kagne sepiolite and palygorskite. The wide compositional variation appears as a consequence of temporary variations of the chemical composition of the solution.

The relationship between capitalism and slavery has been contentious because, in the Atlantic economy, enslaved people functioned as commodities, as labor, and as assets. The transition away from the Atlantic slave-trading system across the nineteenth century affected the stakeholders in these economic functions differently. Compensated emancipation in Senegal provides an opportunity for thinking about the possibilities and limitations of compensation in facilitating capital's continuity. This article traces how individuals who had invested in enslaved labor managed the transition of emancipation and reinvested their compensation claims. It explores how the process of compensation addressed the problem of commercial debt in ways that allowed for a continuity of many of Senegal's urban business elite and their family firms through the end of the nineteenth century.

This study investigates the effects of genetic improvement policies on dairy production, with a particular emphasis on Artificial Insemination projects. Furthermore, we evaluate the major barriers and challenges of Artificial Insemination projects including water scarcity. Using the data-driven synthetic control method, we found evidence that the Artificial Insemination projects caused milk production to increase by 59 thousand tons on average from 2008 to 2018. This could be correlated with food security (i.e., synergies), but increased dairy production may also place strain on Senegal’s water resources (i.e. trade-offs). To achieve a more efficient outcome, Senegalese dairy policies should consider the negative externalities of these projects on water resources.

In 1854, the Bank of Senegal was established using part of the compensation paid to former slave owners. The bank issued banknotes and provided modern financial services. Masaki analyzes the bank’s management and interrogates the widely accepted argument that merchants from Bordeaux controlled the bank to marginalize African merchants, concluding that the bank largely provided equitable service to this colony. Additionally, Masaki shows that the bank was a site of political struggles for the métis elites and suggests that the complexities of Senegalese society at the time made it difficult to assess the full scope of the bank’s operations.

Most decisions involving risk are not taken in isolation. In addition to the risk from that decision, other independent, so-called ‘background’ risks, are considered. Our research adds to the growing evidence that this background risk influences risk-taking. We report results from a repeated lab-in-the-field investment task with Senegalese fishers in the presence of background risk related to their fishing income and their health. Our measure of background risk is the monthly wind condition. Without controls, we find that fishers act on average intemperately. Adding controls, we find that the impact of background risk on risk-taking—measured as the investment in the investment task—depends on the boat size of the fishers. When dividing the sample according to wealth, we find temperate behavior for the relatively poorer group and intemperate behavior that depends on boat lengths for the relatively richer group. Our results show the interrelations between background risk and context factors.

Climate change is profoundly modifying the earth’s environment, making certain territories uninhabitable. Faced with this known phenomenon, this article outlines a research approach for assessing the law’s role in encouraging states to preemptively protect individuals who live in deteriorating territories, notably by enabling mobility. The question is, however, far from simple, insofar as most of the ways to adapt to climate change—and particularly mobility, which has important human and social implications—require profound societal choices that anthropology has the tools to study. I therefore accompany my legal research with an anthropological approach centered around ethnography conducted at three sites—France, Guadeloupe, Senegal—where state-sponsored mobility is either being considered or already being used as an option to confront the progressive disappearance of land that is being swept away by the sea.

In the absence of broad-based formal health insurance and social protection systems in much of sub-Saharan Africa, the family acts as the key provider of support to older people. This paper furthers our understanding of family support mechanisms in the context of low-income countries by focusing on support from outside the household, which has been less studied so far. By using the data of 3,114 people aged ≥50 from the second round of the Senegalese Poverty and Family Structure Survey, the paper examines how the living arrangements of older people are associated with receiving transfers from non-coresident kin. Our findings highlight a net advantage of women receiving net positive family transfers compared to men for some living arrangements. Results also indicate that living without a husband or an adult significantly increases the likelihood of older women receiving support from non-resident family members compared to those who live with both spouse and a younger adult child. However, these differences are not significant among older men. These results suggest that in constrained settings, decision-makers should consider older people's living arrangements and potential external family support when designing public policies towards them, so as to optimise the impact of policy and interventions on their welfare.