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10 Remarkable Facts About Manatees

If you’ve ever seen manatees you’ll see that they’re quite cuddly and adorable despite their size and stubby snout. They can be described as sluggish, and slow but they are sea mammals that live in coastal locations where they’re easily seen. 

Manatees are warm-blooded (endothermic) mammals that prefer to hang out in coastal and river habitats, give birth to their young ones, and nurse their young. They are identified by their uniquely whiskered faces, paddle-shaped tails, and broad backs.

When it gets colder, these sea cows can be spotted in Crystal River, Florida where they seek shelter in the warm water springs at Kings Bay and Three Sisters, where they stay through the winter before leaving for far-off locations in the summer. 

Here are 10 interesting facts you need to know about manatees.

1. Manatees are mammals just like walruses and seals

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People tend to confuse manatees with walruses and seals because they have obvious physical similarities but at the same time they’re different. Manatees have a close relationship with terrestrial species like hyraxes and elephants and are not linked to these sea creatures.

In addition to having three to four toenails, manatees have thick skin. A smaller replica of the elephant’s trunk, manatees’ snouts are also wrinkled. Similarly, manatees use their protruding lips, which are comparable to elephants’ trunks, to grip and bring food into their mouths. Elephants and manatees have rounded hearts at the bottom, while the majority of animals have hearts that are pointed.

2. The largest herbivores in the ocean are manatees

Manatees are found in coastal areas and rivers all over the Caribbean, Amazon, and western Africa. A fully grown adult can grow to a maximum length of 13 feet, weigh up to 1300 pounds, and eat 10 to 15% of its daily body weight in plants.

3. Manatees were mistaken by sailors for mermaids

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Christopher Columbus claimed that he had “clearly seen three mermaids, which rose well out of the sea” on January 8, 1493, but said they were “not so beautiful as they are said to be, for their faces had some masculine traits.” He recorded that on January 9th, 1493, he had seen “three mermaids, which rose clearly out of the sea.” Columbus wasn’t the only person to find mermaids in the sea. He may not have found them as beautiful because they were manatees instead of mermaids.

4. Every three to five minutes, manatees often surface to breathe

In order to breathe, manatees usually surface every three to five minutes. Humans can only replace 10% of the air in their lungs with each breath, compared to manatees who can replace 90%.

5. Because of their love for grazing, manatees are sometimes referred to as sea cows

, , via Wikimedia Commons

Because of their love of grazing, manatees are sometimes referred to as sea cows. Besides that, they resemble stout cows in appearance. They graze on both freshwater and saltwater plants while living in shallow coastal areas and rivers, feeding on sea grasses, mangrove leaves, and algae.

They eat 10% of their body weight in plant mass each day while munching on the meal for almost half the day. Manatees eat a lot of plants every day and yet they can weigh up to 3,000 pounds.

6. They don’t bite

Because they do not bite, manatees have a large number of teeth. To eat seagrass and other plants, they use their teeth. They are the biggest oceanic herbivores at 14 feet long and up to 3,000 pounds in weight. They eat for most of their waking hours, taking in 5–10% of their daily body weight in vegetation.

The constant chewing wears out the manatees’ teeth, but, like their elephant cousins, manatees constantly replace them with new ones. But during the course of their lifetime, manatees only get six new sets of teeth. The older ones are forced to use the front as the fresh ones advance from the back.

7. Manatees have a smooth brain

Manatees have the smallest brains compared to other animals in terms of the size of their brains in comparison to their bodies. Yet, the manatee brain shares many cortical folds that are similar to humans and other mammals and show a significant amount of cognitive potential. Hence, manatees are not unintelligent despite having a small brain. Manatees can learn simple tasks, are highly sensitive to touch, and can actually spot different colours, yet they may not be as intelligent as dolphins.

Manatees have individual vocal sounds, though they don’t produce extremely loud noises. They can use sound to find each other, as when a tiny calf searches for her mother, or to express fear or anger while they are socialising.

8. You’ll be arrested for disturbing a manatee

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A woman was detained in Florida back in 2012 for riding a manatee. Why did this happen?  What caused it, and why? The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act and Florida’s Manatee Sanctuary Act, which both safeguard West Indian manatees, both make it unlawful for “any person at any time, by any means, or in any manner intentionally or negligently to annoy, molest, harass, or disturb or attempt to molest, harass, or disturb” the threatened animals. It does in fact include riding one.

9. Florida manatee is particularly at risk from boats

Many factors put manatees in danger, including toxic algae (also known as red tide) and collisions with boats. In Florida, collisions with boats are the main cause of death for gentle giants. A 2004 research also discovered that 97 percent of Florida’s manatees had scars from boat crashes.

10. They need warm water to survive

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Manatees need warm water to survive. They prefer water that is 72 degrees or warmer since they have slow metabolic rates and their fat is not well protected from cold water. They are blubbery in size and shape but lack the blubber to keep them warm. Despite how insulated and fat they appear to be, the majority of their body mass is actually made up of their stomach and intestines.

In cold water below 68 degrees, they can experience cold stress if they are poorly insulated. That is why, when winter comes, they migrate to warm spring-fed waters in Kings Bay and Three Sisters Springs, where the water temperature is a constant 72 degrees, or to warm water outputs from power plants. Florida saw at least 246 manatee deaths in 2010 due to cold winter.