Joshua+Zuares-Manatee

​ Manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus)

The animal that you see above is the typical florida manatee, weighin in at a General weight of 880 to 1,200 lb and average length of 2.8 to 3 metres with maximums of 12 ft and 3,910 lb. manitees in general are hardly small animals. Female Manatees, Unlike dogs, tend to be larger and heavier than male manatees. When born,baby manatees have an average weight of 66 lb. you would think that for a vegetarian it would be a little skinnier huh?! Manatees or sea cows are mostly and usually found in florida and typically inhabit warm, shallow, coastal estuarine waters and cannot survive below 15°C (288 K; 60°F). Their natural source for warm waters during the winter is warm-spring fed rivers. The West Indian Manatee migrates into Florida rivers such as the Crystal River the Homosassa River, and the Chassahowitzka River. They stay in these rivers because they have a contsant comforteble temperature year round due to floridas tropical climate. Mnatees are herbavores and eat over 60 different plant species such as mangrove leaves, turtle grass, and types of algae, using their divided upper lip. An adult manatee will commonly eat up to 9% of its body weight per day. Although they are herbivores Manatees have been known to eat small snacks such as very little amounts of fish from nets. The main threat to manitees todayis human beings and their big boats, although in the bast in places such as the carribean manittess were often hunted for their meat, it is common today to find manitees mutilated by boats and slashed by their propellers although many injuries are fatal and cause the manitee to bleed to death or puncture their lungs, many have survived over 50 slashes that have been obsereved by marine life experts. The population of manatees in Florida (//T. manatus//) is thought to be between 1,000 and 3,000. The number of manatee deaths in Florida caused by humans has been increasing through the years, and now humans are held responsile for 20%-40% of recorded manatee deaths. In 2006 alone there were 417 manatee deaths in Florida and 101 of them were because of mans wrecklesness. The marine life preserve is coming up with rules and enforcing regulations that help to protect the florida mantaees some of these include the restrictions of boat speed in highly manitee occupied areas and the restrictions of fishing due to manatees being strangled in the nets. manatees regulate the amount of seaweed and the things in their diet that they eat. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 authorizes the determination and listing of species as endangered and threatened, it also prohibits unauthorized taking, possession, sale, and transport of endangered speciesas well as provides authority to buy out land for the conservation of listed species and by law they are allowed to do this using land and water conservation funds. Lastly the Act authorizes the assessment of civil and criminal penalties for violating the Act or regulations; and authorizes the payment of rewards to anyone furnishing information leading to arrest and conviction for any violation of the Act or any regulation issued thereunder. the different restrictions set on manitee ocupied areas have really made somehwta of a difference to the population of manatee. This help the manatee population because it help set rules and restrictions on certain areas so that the living environment for the manatees is reasonable and help conserve the endangered speices. After starting the variouse conservation efforts manitees poplation grew of an average of 101 per year, so much so that they were debating on wheather or not to change them from being endangered back to threatened, but the proposal was denied. when manatees are born and in just about 12 months when the weaning period is over they are able to sexually reproduce and have to venture out on their own to start the process over again. Funding for saving the speicies of manitee exceeds 150,000 dollars a year just for the florida devision. Now you see that manitees are scarce in size and are ultimately harmless to man but it seems as if we do much more harm to them so next time your boating in florida watch out not only for sharks but for the loving manatee!