Manatees or Sirerians (from a Greek word
meaning siren or beautiful maiden) spend their entire life in the ocean
feeding off of plant life. Manatees can be fond along the Atlantic seaboard
from Florida to Northern South America. Manatees keep to shallow water
away from predators such as sharks and killer whales. But many manatees
are being killed from boat propellers.
Why are manatees going extinct ?And are they endanger species?
Boat propellers and natives in tropical America have played
a big part in the decrease in manatee populations. For hundreds of years
the natives have been hunting and eating manatees which is believed to
mean big beaver.
What is the habitat like?
Spending its entire life in the water, a manatee cannot
crawl on land not even to breed. Its most common habitat is the narrow
margin between the deep sea and the dry land .It is at home in shelters,
harbors, Estuaries, lagoons, bays, and large rivers where it feeds on the
various kinds of seaweed and grasses that grow on the ocean floor. The
amount of vegetation available to feed the manatees is nowhere sufficient
to support large colonies and, thus, the population is not and never was
very large.
What is the migration of the manatee like?
They migrate from marine areas into the warmer spring-fed
channels during the cold winter months. On the coldest days , they go to
the mouth of various springs where warm waters flow into the rivers.
What is the manatees main predator?
Sharks and killer whales have forced the manatee to live
in shallow waters. For fear of being attack.
How many types of manatees are there? and What types of manatees are there?
Trichechus manatees lives in the west Indian(or west Indian
manatee). Trichechus senegalensis living in west Africa. Same shape and
same size of the West Indians mantee. Trichechus inunguis the amanzonain
mantee. which is the smallest of the mantees. Trichechus manatus latirostris
also called the Florida manatee.
How do manatees communicate with each other?
Manatee send out sound underwater. They make these sounds
when frighted ,sexually aroused, or interacting with each other. They respond
to each from 600 ft. from each other.
The manatees earliest ancestors date back 75 million years ago. They were known as prorastomus found in the Paleocene deposits of the west Indies. Another ancestor was the protosiren found in the deposits of the middle Eocene Epoch in Egypt and Europe about 60 million years ago.
Colliers Encyclopedia ,1997.
By; Justin G. and Geoff L.