Kritter Girl's Korner: Manatee: The Docile Sea Cow

Spanish explorers first discovered me in the 1500s.

I'm slow moving and gentle and spend most of my time traveling and eating.

I am protected under federal laws with a current status of endangered.

I eat one pound of food for every ten pounds I weigh.

There are three different species of Manatees: The Amazonian Manatee found in the Amazon basin, the West African Manatee found in the west coast of Africa and the West Indian Manatee found in the West Indies and Florida. There are also two recognized subspecies of the West Indian Manatee, the Florida and Antillean manatee. Instead of writing about each species I decided just to list for you the facts I've found on them. ...

Common name is Sea Cow.
Females are called cows, male are called bulls, and the young are calves.
Manatees were hunted for their meat, hide, and oil.
The Manatee's closest land relative is the elephant.
The manatees are migratory marine mammals.
Manatees have fore flippers and no hind limbs and a paddle-like tail. They use their flippers to walk in shallow waters.
Manatees are graceful swimmers despite their large size.
Manatees are non-aggressive, non-territorial herbivores.
Manatees have no defense system except to flee; they don't fight for territory or food.
They eat mainly floating and shoreline vegetation, and sea grass, thus the name "sea cow".
They graze for their food on the surface and along the bottom of the water.
Manatees can eat between 100 to 150 pounds of grass a day, consuming 10%-15% of their body weight daily.
Because of the manatees eating habits they are always growing new back teeth (molars) and the old ones just fall out the front.
They live in warm bays, shallow rivers, coastal waters and estuaries.
Female manatees are generally larger than the males.
Adult manatees spend 6-8 hours a day eating and the rest of the day is spent traveling and resting.
Manatees can hold their breath up to 15 minutes while resting.
Communication is done by high-pitched sounds like chirps, squeaks and whistles. They also sent mark rocks.
Manatees can detect and object in the water from tens of meters away.
The manatee bones are very dense and lack marrow which makes them negatively buoyant enabling them to lie on the bottom without having to exert any energy to stay down. Because of this they can stay under water longer between breaths to feed.
The manatee lacks fat layers for insulation and has a low metabolic rate, because of this they need to be in water that is at least 68ºF.
The average weight for an adult is between 800-1200 pounds.
Male manatees are sexually mature by the age of 9 to 10 years old.
Females are sexually mature at about 4 years old.
Manatee birth rate is low because females only give birth to a single calf every 2-3 years in the spring and summer.
The calves are dependent for 2 years.
In the summer Manatees are commonly sighted in Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.
The West Indian Manatee is related to the West African and Amazonian Manatee as well as the Steller's sea cow which was hunted to extinction in 1768.
The West Indian manatee can live in fresh, salt and brackish waters, in waterways over 3.25 feet deep and connected to the coast. Their preferred water temperatures are above 70ºF.
The West Indian Manatees winter in Florida and in the summer can be found as far north as Virginia, and as far west as Texas.
The West Indian Manatee has no natural enemy, and can live for 60 years or more Adult West Indian Manatees are about 10 feet long and can reach 13 feet.
At birth the West Indian manatees are 4 to 4.5 feet long and weighs 60-70 pounds.
In the United States the West Indian Manatee are protected under federal law by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which makes it illegal to capture, harass, hunt or kill any marine mammal.
West Indian Manatees are also protected under the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978.
The Amazonian Manatee is the smallest of the manatees and they are the only specie confined to fresh water. They are found in floodplain lakes, channels and white-water river systems with water temperatures between 77-86ºF. In such places as Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil Guyana, Venezuela and Peru.
The Amazonian Manatee has no nails on its pectoral fins and has whitish patches on it's underside unlike the other species.
The Amazonian manatees are shorter and more slender the longest of them measuring 9.2 feet. One rather large Amazonian weighed in at 1,058 pounds
Amazonian manatees do most of their feeding during the wet season.
It's speculated that when necessary the Amazonian manatees are able to fast for up to 7 months.
West African manatees live in coastal areas, lagoons, large rivers and connecting lakes in water with temperatures above 64ºF along the west coast of Africa
The African Manatee is the least studied of all the manatee, very little is known about them, but scientists think they are similar to the West Indian Manatees.
The Africa Manatee is occasionally killed by sharks and crocodiles but their significant threat is from humans, such as poaching and lost of habitat.
The Florida manatee cane live in any warm water in and around Florida and rarely venture into deep ocean waters.
The Florida manatees feed on more than 60 different species of vegetation such as manatee grass, turtle grass, water hyacinth, mangrove leaves, shoal grass and various algae.
One rather large Florida manatee weighted 3,650 pounds.
In 1893 Florida put a stop to the hunting of Manatees because they were almost extinct.
The Florida manatee is one of the United States most endangered marine mammals.
The Florida Manatees population is believed to be 2,000-3,000.
Since 1996 more than 250 manatees have been found dead in southwestern Florida.
The Florida manatee's gestation is about 12 months, but the exact time period for most manatees is not known.
In the United States the current main threat to the manatee mortality is being struck by boats or slashed with their propellers, crushed and or drowning in canal locks, entanglement in crab trap lines, the ingestion of fish hooks and litter along with lost of habitat.
Marine zoological parks such as SeaWorld in Florida [other Sea World parks have sent their manatee back to Florida upon request of wild life conservation government offices] help conserve manatees. SeaWorld is authorized to rescue and rehabilitate ill, injured, or orphaned manatees. The first priority of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation program is to return healthy manatees to their natural habitat. SeaWorld Florida has successfully rescued and released more than 150 manatees as of January 2005.
Since 1967 manatees have been listed as endangered at the federal level.