Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus Trichechus) are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species in the order Sirenia: the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis), the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), and the West African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis). The name manatí comes from the Taíno, a pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean, meaning "breast".
Ten Facts about Manatee
- The average adult manatee is about 10 feet long and weighs between 800 and 1,200 pounds.
- Manatees can be found in shallow, slow-moving rivers, estuaries, saltwater bays, canals, and coastal areas - particularly where seagrass beds or freshwater vegetation flourish.
- Within the United States, they are concentrated in Florida in the winter. In summer months, they can be found as far west as Texas and as far north as Massachusetts, but summer sightings in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina are more common.
- Manatees are gentle and slow-moving animals. Most of their time is spent eating, resting, and traveling.
- Manatees are completely herbivorous. They eat a large variety of submerged, emergent, and floating plants and can consume 10-15% of their body weight in vegetation daily.
- Manatees can swim up to 20 miles per hour in short bursts, but they usually only swim about three to five miles per hour.
- West Indian manatees have no natural enemies, and it is believed they can live 60 years or more.
- The reproductive rate for manatees is low. Manatees are not sexually mature until they are about five years old.
- It is believed that one calf is born every two to five years, and twins are rare. The gestation period is about a year.
- Manatees are capable of understanding discrimination tasks, and show signs of complex associated learning and advanced long term memory.
