How to Identify Manatees

Many people are familiar with manatees to some degree. Manatees are aquatic mammals also known as Sea Cows. The most common type of manatee is the West Indian Manatee. The well-known Florida Manatee is a type of West Indian Manatee. To identify a manatee, here's what you need to look out for.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Know that manatees are mammals that migrate with the seasons. You'll find them in different parts of the world at different times of the year. The Florida Manatee lives around Florida during the winter, and as far north as Virginia and as far west as Alabama during the summer months. Other West Indian Manatees live in the West Indies and near South America.

2. Learn about the habitat of the manatee. Manatees like warm, slow-moving, shallow water. Look for them in bays, canals, estuaries, rivers and near the coasts.

3. View the size of the manatee. Manatees are large mammals. They tend to be between 2.7 and 5 meters in length and between 410 and 545 kg in weight at adulthood. Female manatees are larger than males.

4. Identify the appearance of the manatee. They're usually gray, with rounded bodies that resemble an oval shape, with whiskers near their noses and small widely spaced eyes. They have two flippers and a flat tail that's shaped like a paddle. The manatee also has a wrinkled face and head with a blow hole on top.

5. Observe the behaviors of the calm and slow-moving mammals. They often rest underwater at the bottom or right below the surface. They come to the surface every three to five minutes to breathe. Manatees spend a lot of time eating, resting or slowly moving around their habitat.

Tips & Warnings

• A "cousin" of the manatee, the dugong, is found in and around the Indian Ocean, near Asia and the east coast of Africa.