What Do Manatees Do All Day?

The manatee is a large aquatic mammal with a hefty body that ends in a tail shaped like a paddle. Native to the rivers and shallow coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, manatees are related to elephants and the hyrax, which is a tiny mammal that resembles a guinea pig. Manatees are an endangered species with perhaps as few as one to three thousand living in the wild. Let's look at how a manatee spends its day.

Size

The manatee is thought to have evolved from a plant-eating type of animal that spent much of its time in the water gobbling up aquatic vegetation; the elephant and hyrax are theorized to have spun off from this very same ancestor. The average adult manatee achieves a length of almost 10 feet and is anywhere between 800 and 1,200 pounds in weight. This requires the manatee to spend much of its day feeding in order to maintain such girth.

Geography

Manatees spend the majority of their time in sluggish rivers that are mostly shallow, as well as saltwater bays, estuaries, canals, and coastal marshes deep enough to swim in. They are migratory, so part of the year they will be on the move to another location. Most of the West Indian manatees, the most abundant of the manatee species, winter in the waters of Florida. They have been seen as far north as Cape Cod in Massachusetts but such a long journey is extremely rare for a manatee. They aren't uncommon in the waters of Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia or as far west as Texas.

Identification

The manatee is a slow-moving animal that is not aggressive. They spend the day eating, sleeping, and moving from place to place. The manatee only eats vegetation and they are capable of consuming daily as much as 15% of their own body weight in aquatic plants. They will eat the plants that grow on the bottom or gladly gobble up those that are near the surface of the water. There are over 60 types of plants that manatees have been known to feast on--mangrove leaves, algae and grasses are just a few. The manatee has a divided upper lip with which it can pull these plants free from their roots. The lip is flexible and prehensile, another link to elephants.

Considerations

The manatee sleeps underwater, coming up for air every 20 minutes or so. When they are active and expending energy at a good clip they have to come up for air every 30 seconds. The manatee is often struck and killed by boats, since they are hard to see when submerged. This is the leading cause of deaths in manatees.

Time Frame

Manatees are believed to be able to live up to 60 years in the wild if they can spend their day eating, sleeping and avoiding run-ins with boats and humans. The oldest manatee in captivity is at the South Florida Manatee Aquarium in Bradenton. Snooty the Manatee was born on July 21, 1948, the very first manatee to be born in captivity. Snooty spends the day eating cabbage, carrots, fruit, and lettuce, sleeping and moving around just like a typical wild manatee but without the worries of dodging boats.