Manatees... The Gentle Giants

Manatees are marine mammals originating in the middle Eocene period around 45 to 50 million years ago. They are gentle, plant-eating herbivores sometimes nicknamed "sea cows". Today, their closest living relatives are elephants and aardvarks. Their thick-skinned, streamlined, almost hairless bodies have forelimbs modified into flippers. The tail is enlarged and horizontally-flattened. Manatees are now quite rare. Perhaps only 2,500 are left in the USA. In ancient times, sailors mistook them for mermaids or sirens on account of their long tails. Today, they often bear scars on account of their collisions with boats, a major hazard. Manatees spend most of their time feeding, resting or travelling. They prefer shallow saltwater bays, slow-moving rivers, canals, estuaries and coastal waters. Manatees are quite agile creatures. A manatee uses its flippers and tail to steer itself. It moves its tail up and down to propel its body forward through the water. Manatees can swim vertically and upside down; they can do rolls and perform aquatic somersaults. Their extra-dense bones enable them to stay suspended at or below the water's surface. Manatees eat over 60 different species of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants. Their diet includes manatee grass, turtle grass, various species of algae, mangrove leaves, and water hyacinths. They may consume 10% of their body weight daily in vegetation. Their digestive system allows the bacterial breakdown of cellulose in the hind-gut. To accommodate the great volume of high-fiber food they eat, manatees have intestines up to 150 feet long. Manatees have "marching molars", their only kind of teeth. Throughout a manatee's life, the molars are constantly replaced, an adaption to their diet of abrasive vegetation. Manatees use their muscular lips to tear plants and guide food to their lips - not unlike the way an elephant uses its trunk. Manatees normally feed in the water, whether on the surface, off the bottom, or in water columns; but they sometimes haul themselves partially out of the water to eat bank side vegetation, or to crop overhanging branches. Manatees have a large, double-nostriled snout. The upper lip is large and flexible, with whiskers ("vibrissae") on its surface. Each vibrissa has its own separate follicular blood supply and nerve endings. Manatees can grow over 13 feet in length and weigh up to 3,500 pounds. Lengths of 10-12 feet and 1000 -1500 pounds for adults are more typical. In spite of their size, manatees have relatively little fat; they are a sub-tropical species very susceptible to cold. Their eyes are small, but eyesight is good. Manatees have a nictitating membrane which can be drawn across the eyeball for protection. Hearing is good too; manatees have large ear bones. Swimming speeds of up to 20mph have been recorded, but normally manatees prefer to cruise at speeds of at 2-6mph. They will typically surface to breathe through their nostrils every three to five minutes. When they are using a great deal of energy, however, manatees may surface for air as often as every 30 seconds. They can stay submerged for up to 15-20 minutes. Manatees have a slow reproductive rate. Twins are rare; when they do occur, one calf is suckled on each nipple, located just behind each of the flippers. More normally, one calf is born every 2-5 years. At birth, the calf is around 3-4 feet long. Guided by the mother, it swims to the surface to breathe. The new-born calf weighs about 60-70 pounds. It starts suckling - underwater - a few hours after birth. The manatee gestation period is over a year, usually around 13 months. Mothers nurse their young for a long period. When they swim together, the baby may hold onto the mother's back with its tiny flippers. The calf will remain dependent on its mother for up to two years. Mother and calf communicate by continual chirps and squeaks. The calf starts eating plants after a few weeks old; it is born with molar and pre-molar teeth. Female manatees are sexually mature by around 6-7 years; males by perhaps 9 years. Manatees are migratory animals adapted to both saltwater and freshwater habitats. Off the USA, West Indian manatees are concentrated in Florida in the winter. In the summer months, they can be found as far west as Alabama and as far north as Virginia and the Carolinas - very rarely, even further north. Manatees can live up to 60 years. They may occasionally be disturbed by crocodiles, and suffer from habitat-degradation, but their only significant predator is Man.

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Entertainment

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• manatee
• Florida manatees

[sethcamm]

Thank you for posting, my friend Rusty had always wanted to see a Manatee perform, just sent him the link

[iloverotterdam1]

i love this video, thank you for sharing

[MriBackup]

@Iamgueneapig florida

[Iamgueneapig]

where do mannatees live?