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The manatee is a large nautical mammal with an egg - shaped head , flippers and a flat fag end . Manatees are also known as sea cows . This name is apt , due to their large stature ; sluggish , loll nature ; and propensity to be eaten by other animals . However , despite the name , they are more closely interrelate to elephants . Though they may seem like clumsy wight , manatees can float quickly and gracefully .
manatee drift in size of it from 8 to 13 metrical unit ( 2.4 to 4 meters ) and can librate 440 to 1,300 lbs . ( 200 to 590 kilograms ) . They have large , strong derriere that power their swimming . Manatees usually swim about 5 miles per hour ( 8 kilometer / h ) , but they can swim up to 15 mph ( 24 kilometre / h ) in short outburst when they palpate a motive for swiftness , concord toNational Geographic .
A manatee munching down on some sargassum.
Habitat
There are three mintage of manatee : the Amazonian manatee ( genus Trichecus inunguis ) ; the West Indian Trichechus manatus , or the American Trichechus manatus ( genus Trichecus manatus ) ; and the African manatee ( genus Trichecus senegalensis ) . Their name indicate the regions in which they live . Typically , Trichechus manatus appease in rivers , ocean and oceans along the coast of several land . The African Trichechus manatus live along the seacoast and in the rivers of western Africa . The Amazon manatee last in the Amazon River ’s drainage , from the headwater in Colombia , Peru and Ecuador to the backtalk of the Amazon in Brazil . Their range of mountains is approximate to be around 2.7 million square miles ( 7 million square kilometers ) , according to theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN ) . The West Indian manatee lives in the southerly and eastern United States , although a few " vagrant " have been know to reach the Bahamas , harmonize to the IUCN .
Habits
Manatees often float alone or in pairs . They are not territorial , so they have no need for a leader or following . When manatee are seen in a group , it is either a sexual union ruck or an informal meeting of the specie simply share a lovesome sphere that has a large food for thought supply . A group of manatees is called an aggregation . An assembling usually never grows large than about six soul , allot to theSave the Manatee Club .
Diet
Trichechus manatus are herbivore . At sea , they lean to opt sea supergrass . When they live in river , they take in fresh water botany . Trichechus manatus also run through alga . According to National Geographic , a manatee can consume a tenth of its own weight in 24 hours . That can equal up to 130 pound . ( 59 kg ) .
Offspring
During mating , a distaff manatee , which is called a cow , will be come after around by a dozen or more males , which are called bulls . The group of bull is called a coupling ruck . Once the male person has mated , though , he direct no part in the nurture of the young .
A distaff Trichechus manatus is meaning for about12 months , consort to Save the Manatee Club . The calf , or child manatee , is have underwater . The mother helps the calf get to the weewee ’s open for zephyr , and within the first hour of liveliness , the calf will be able to swim on its own . In five years , the young Trichechus manatus will be sexually mature and quick to have its own young . Manatees commonly exist about 40 years .
Classification/taxonomy
According to theIntegrated Taxonomic Information System ( ITIS),the manatee ’s full categorization is :
Conservation status
The IUCN ’s Red List of Threatened Species number all manatees as vulnerable or endangered and facing a high danger of extinction . Populations are expected to decline by as much as 30 percent over the next 20 years . number are operose to come by , specially for the secretiveAmazonian manatee ; the IUCN says the estimate of 10,000 manatees should be regarded with caution because the numbers are supported by little empiric data . likewise , the exact number ofAfrican manateesis unknown , but the IUCN estimates there are fewer than 10,000 manatee in West Africa .
TheFlorida manateeand theAntillean manateewere list as endangered in 1967 and 1970 , severally , under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 ; the number of mature individuals was estimate to be few than 2,500 for each subspecies , and the population were expected to refuse by more than 20 percent over the next two generation , or about 40 years .
On March 31 , 2017 , however , the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ( FWS)downgraded the West Indian manatees ' condition from peril to threatened . Both significant increases in the manatee population numbers and habitat improvements direct to the downlisting , according to the FWS .
As many as 6,620 Florida manatee and 6,300 Antillean manatee are estimated to live in the wild currently , according to the FWS .
" Today , we both realize the significant progress we have made in conserve manatee populations while reaffirming our commitment to continuing this species ' recuperation and achiever throughout its range of a function , " Jim Kurth , acting manager of the FWS , said in a statement by the FWS .
But manatees are n’t out of the woods yet , and are still consider a " threatened species . " One cause for the position is that manatee reproduce very slowly — the time between generations is about 20 years . In addition , fishermen trawling with nets in the Amazon and West Africa pose a grievous threat to these easy - moving mammal . Also , in West Africa , manatees are hunt for their meat .
Habitat going from waterfront exploitation also impacts their natural selection . Trichechus manatus are also vulnerable to collision with speedboats .
Other facts
Manatees are imagine to have evolvedfrom four - legged solid ground mammals more than 60 million geezerhood ago . Except for the Amazonian Trichechus manatus , their paddlelike flipper have vestigial toenail — a oddment of the claws they had when they endure on land . The Amazon coinage name " inunguis " is Latin for " without nails . "
The name manatee come from the Taíno ( a pre - Columbian masses of the Caribbean ) wordmanatí , intend " breast . "
Trichechus manatus ' eyes are humble , but their eyesight is unspoilt . They have a special tissue layer that can be get out across the orb for protection . Their hearing is good too , despite not receive tabu ear structures , because manatee have declamatory inner ear pearl .
Manatees ' only teeth are called marching molars . Throughout a manatee ’s life , the molars are constantly supercede — an adaption to their diet of scratchy vegetation .
manatee have only six neck vertebra . Most other mammals , include giraffes , have seven . As a answer , manatees can not turn their heads sideways , and must grow their whole trunk around to look behind them .
Algae , photosynthetic organisms , often produce on Trichechus manatus ' skin .
Trichechus manatus never go on nation .
Manatees do n’t always need to breathe . As they swim , they prod their nozzle up above the water ’s surface to catch a few breath every few minutes . If they are simply resting , they can stay on under the water for 15 proceedings without taking a intimation , according to National Geographic .
An animal that is standardized to the Trichechus manatus is the dugong ( Dugong dugon ) . Dugongs are also in the edict Sirenia , but they are in a different family , Dugongidae . These manatee first cousin are found in the Indian and Pacific oceans . They have a notch in their buttocks , as well as tusks .
Manatees and dugongs may have inspiredmermaid legends . In ancient mythology , femme fatale were monsters or sea nymphs who sang hypnotize songs that lured sailors to channelize their ships onto treacherous rocks . After a farseeing sea ocean trip , boater may have thought they were seeing sirens , or mermaid , when they were credibly seeing Trichechus manatus or dugongs .
Additional resources
