About Manatees

Learn about manatees!

The general facts: manatees are aquatic herbivorous mammals with two flippers and one tail. They tend to weigh between 500-1300 pounds and live up to 40 years in the wild. They can also grow between 8-13 feet in length. Their nickname is the "sea cow!" They usually travel alone or in pairs, sometimes even in groups of 6. Their diet is restricted to aquatic vegetation. Manatees do not actually possess much body fat, which is why they prefer much warmer waters.

Fun fact: Did you know that manatees are related to elephants?

Types of Manatees

Manatees come from the order of Sirenia. Their scientific name is trichechus manatus. There are three species of living manatees: the West Indian Manatee, located along the North American east coast, the African manatee, located in rivers and along the west coast of Africa, and the Amazonian manatee which inhabits the Amazon River. The relative of the manatee, the Stellar's sea cow, was declared extinct in 1812.

The manatees also have a cousin, the dugong. The dugong lives in warm, shallow coastal waters along the Northern Australian coasts unlike its cousins, the manatees, who prefer warm, shallow freshwater. Both species are capable of swimming in both kinds of water.

DUGONG

Manatee behavior

Manatees eat roughly ten percent of their body weight everyday. To put that into perspective, that's roughly 100 pounds of water grasses, algae, and weeds! They also come to the surface to breath around every fifteen minutes, but when swimming they take a breath just about every three to four minutes. They usually glide in the water at five miles per hour, or sometimes just sit in one place and eat, and move on. They are capable of short bursts of speed up to fifteen miles per hour. Manatees sleep/rest for up to 12 hours a day, spending the other 12 hours grazing and traveling.

They are known to travel further north in the summer and spring, where the waters begin to warm. This expands the manatees' food supply as well as their environment. During the winter, manatees migrate back to Florida and the warmer waters of the equator. Manatees cannot tolerate temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit for a long period of time.

Threats towards the manatees

The major threats manatees face when it comes to survival include the destruction of their habitat and motor boating. Humans, unaware of what is underneath the surface often times hit a manatee near the surface, injuring and sometimes killing them in the process. Manatees also become entangled in fishing nets, preventing them from performing their daily activities. The destruction of their habitat is also another factor, as manatees need lots of warm, shallow waters to travel too for food and refuge. Algal blooms, the result of human runoff, pollution, and global warming, cause aquatic vegetation and sea grass to die without proper sunlight exposure, leaving manatees with less food to graze upon (and you know how much food they need each day).

In order to reduce the threats the manatees face, more stringent boating laws need to be created to reduce the speed limit for boats in certain areas. We must also protect manatees' habitats, as manatees cannot survive in cold, deep waters with no aquatic vegetation to graze. Additionally, we must shift to more carbon neutral practices like public transportation, saving energy, and eating more sustainably grown food!

How it all connects...

Manatees are, of course, are cute marine mammals that any human being would love to meet. Besides this fact is environmental consciousness - concern for the environment in which we reside in. Manatees share our environment, although this is specific to Florida. They are environmental indicators in that their health is indicative of how we treat our environment. Manatees tell us if the water is clean. Algal blooms play a large role in the deaths of manatees. This phenomena is the result of excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) in the water, caused by human runoff and pollution. If manatees are around consistently, it goes to show the cleanliness of the water they swim, eat, and sleep in. Boating is another leading cause of manatee injuries and deaths. If we are all conscious of our environment and aware of who we share it with, we can all admire each other and the creatures who were here before us.