The Ecology of Manatees

The Ecology of Manatees

The world is composed of a great variety of living organisms. Living organisms might be seen just as animals or plants, but in fact they are more than just what their name says. Living organisms share the planet earth with human beings and help to maintain life on earth by being an important complement to us.

Name

Manatees are members of an order of aquatic mammals known as the Sirenia and are believed to be descendants of the same ancestor from which the elephants evolved. The three types of manatees, which evaded extinction and can still be found, are West Indian, Amazonian, and West African manatees (Daniel S. Hartman, V). First, West Indian manatee is commonly named Manatee, Sea Cow, Lamantin des Carabes, or Vaca marina del Caribe. Its scientific name is Trichechus manatus. Second, West African manatee is commonly named Manatee, Sea Cow, or Lamantin. Its scientific name is Trichechus senegalensis. Third, Amazonian manatee is commonly named Manatee, Sea Cow, or Peixe-boi. Its scientific name is Trichechus inunguis ( James Powel,71).

Description

All manatees are very similar when it comes to their physical description. They all are characterized for having large "spindle shaped" bodies, which have approximately a length of 10 ft. Manatees weight as much as 1000 lb. A curious fact is that female manatees tend to be bigger and heavier than males. When it comes to the appearance of the manatees, many people see them as dangerous because of how they look and the size, which definitely would scare anybody who doesn't know pretty much about them. The reality is that manatees are pretty much very kind animals which interact very well with people. Manatees have a large, flexible, prehensile upper lip. They use the lip to gather food and eat as well as using it for social interactions and communications. Manatees have short snouts. According to source Wikipedia, their small, widely-spaced eyes have eyelids that close in a circular manner. The adults have no incisor or canine teeth, just a set of cheek teeth, which are not clearly differentiated into molars and premolars. Manatees' skin texture is pretty much like a football and sparsely covered with hairs (Jeff Ripple, 33). They all three types of manatees differ in color. The West Indian manatee tends to be grey, brown or even greenish depending of the types of algae growing on the skin. The West African manatee has a dark grey or brown skin color. The Amazonian manatee has a skin color that is dark grey but closer to black with white or pinkish blazes on the ventral surface and tends to be smaller than its relatives. (James Powel, 71).

Locations Found

As manatees are animal species which were close to extinction, they are no very common around the world in the sense that we can't find them everywhere as we do find other species. Manatees are very restricted to exists in some areas around the world. First, West Indian manatees are commonly found in The United States in the state of Florida. Depending of the season, the range where we can find manatees is in southern Florida, with small groups wintering in warm water springs in northern Florida. With the past of the years, due to the loos of habitat of south Florida, manatees have remained farther north in winter. However, in summer they may range as far as north as Rhode Island and as far west as Mississippi and Louisiana (Jeff Ripple. 28). It is known that manatees travel alone or in small groups and can travel long distances. According to Jeff Ripple, one tagged manatee traveled 528 miles between Blue Springs in the ST. Johns River to Coral Gables, south of Miami. Another tagged manatee caught the attention of the scientists after traveling more than 1500 miles from Florida to Rhode Island, breaking records for the longest migration of a West Indian manatee (30). Second, according to John E. Reynolds III and Daniel K. Odell, West African manatees are wide distributed covering freshwater to coastal marine waters from Senegal to Angola, meaning that this kind of manatee can be found in more than a dozen countries (90). Third, Amazonian manatees live in the Amazon basin, where they occupied rivers in Brazil as the well-known Amazon River. They also are found along the Brazil-Guyana border, in Colombia, in Peru, and in Ecuador (John E. Reynolds III and Daniel K. Odell, 101).

Habitat

One of the most interesting things when studying any species is to know about their habitat. As stated before, manatees can be found in different areas around the world, however, it must be clear that all three kinds of manatees, and in fact all living sirenians, are usually found in warm tropical and subtropical waters. First, Florida manatee, which is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is known because of the sensibility they have to water temperature. This sensibility makes them move into warm-water sites when water temperature drops below about 68 degree Fahrenheit. According to John E. Reynolds III and Daniel K. Odell, it is know that severe cold weather have killed many manatees in Florida (49). It is also known that cold water causes manatees to stop eating. Manatees share their habitat with different kinds of species which are mainly different kind of plants. This is very common in all three kinds of manatees,