What are Manatees?

About Manatees:

• Manatees are aquatic mammals that belong to a group of animals called Sirenia. This group also contains dugongs.
• Dugongs and manatees are very similar in appearance and behavior, but there is one key difference: their tails.
  • Manatees have paddle-shaped tails, and dugongs have fluked tails, giving them a whale-like appearance.
• Habitat: Manatees inhabit shallow, marshy coastal areas and rivers.
• There are three species, or types, of manatee.
  • The Amazonian manatee lives in the Amazon River and in fresh water in South America. This species is only found in freshwater.
  • The African manatee lives in tropical West Africa.
  • The Caribbean manatee is found in Florida and the West Indies.
• Features:
  • Adult manatees may reach a length of 15 feet (4.6 meters) and a weight of 1,660 kilograms. 
  • Dull gray, blackish, or brown in colour, all three manatee species have stout tapered bodies ending in a flat rounded tail used for forward propulsion. 
  • The forelimbs are modified into flippers; there are no hind limbs.
  • In order to breathe, they must swim to the water’s surface for air. 
  • Lifespan: 50 to 60 years
  • They are herbivores. They graze along the seabed and eat seagrasses, giving them the nickname “sea cow”.
  • They spend up to eight hours a day grazing and can consume 4 to 9 percent of their body weight in aquatic vegetation daily.
  • Apart from mothers and their young, or males following a receptive female, manatees are generally solitary animals.
• Conservation Status: All three manatee species are listed as ‘Vulnerable’ by the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Q1: What are Dugongs?

Dugong marine mammal that inhabits the warm coastal waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, feeds on seagrasses, and is similar to the manatee. Australia harbors the largest populations, but dugongs also occur along the western coast of Madagascar, along the eastern coast of Africa, in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, around the Indian subcontinent, and through the western Pacific from Okinawa to northern Australia. 

Source: Florida manatees rescued after being stranded on land by Hurricane Helene