Overview
The Florida manatee is one of two sub species of the West Indian manatee.
Florida manatees are large marine mammals that primarily eat plants, including seagrasses, other aquatic plants, and in some locations, salt marsh salt marsh
Salt marshes are found in tidal areas near the coast, where freshwater mixes with saltwater.
Learn more about salt marsh and other shoreline vegetation.
The Florida manatee is native to Florida and is found primarily in coastal and riverine areas throughout the state. During the warmer months, the Florida manatee’s range may extend west to Texas and north to Delaware Bay and potentially beyond. As water temperatures decrease in the fall, manatees return to peninsular Florida and their warm water sites.
In the early 1990’s, fewer than 2,000 manatees were believed to inhabit Florida. Today and with the use of a robust survey methodology, at least 8,350 are estimated to inhabit Florida, representing a substantial increase over the past 30 plus years.
The Florida manatee faces a variety of threats including watercraft collisions, loss of warm-water habitat (i.e., power plant closure loss or reduction of natural spring flow), loss of foraging or feeding habitat, human interactions (such as entanglements, ingestion of marine debris, navigation locks, water control structures, harassment), harmful algal blooms, mortality related to cold stress syndrome, and climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change .
Manatees are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act and under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Scientific Name
Identification Numbers
Characteristics
Habitat
Manatees live in marine, brackish, and freshwater systems in coastal and riverine areas throughout their range. Preferred habitats include areas near the shore featuring submerged aquatic vegetation like seagrass and eelgrass. They feed along grass bed margins with access to deep water channels, where they may flee when threatened. In Northern Florida and portions of some other states, manatees may rely on different food resources, such as salt marsh salt marsh
Salt marshes are found in tidal areas near the coast, where freshwater mixes with saltwater.
Learn more about salt marsh vegetation. Florida manatees can be found throughout Florida for most of the year. However, they are cold-intolerant and cannot tolerate temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit for extended periods of time, and during the winter months, cold temperatures keep the population concentrated mostly in peninsular Florida. To keep warm in cooler months, many manatees rely on the warm water from natural springs, power plant outfalls, and passive thermal basins.
Of or relating to the sea.
The land near a shore.
A natural body of running water.
Food
Due to their eating habits, manatees are nicknamed sea cows, because they eat seagrasses and other aquatic plants along coastal waters, marshes and rivers. As an interesting and unique adaptation to their diet (which includes plants and other material that may wear down their teeth), manatees exhibit tooth replacement with molars that are continually replaced throughout their life.
Behavior
Manatees are herbivores or plant eaters and spend up to 8 hours a day eating seagrass or other vegetation. They may consume up to 10% of their body weight per day.
Manatees typically surface every three to five minutes to breathe but can hold their breath as long as 20 minutes.
Physical Characteristics
Manatees are typically greyish brown in color. They have sparse hairs spread across their bodies, with bristles referred to as vibrissae about the muzzle. Manatees are sometimes covered in algae which can make them appear green or brown in color. Newborn calves will be extremely dark at birth.
Manatees are large marine mammals with two flippers and a large, paddle-shaped tail. The flippers are used to steer and hold vegetation. Their powerful tails are used for swimming, helping them reach speeds of 15 miles per hour for very short periods.
Adult manatees are typically 9-10 feet long but can reach lengths of more than 13 feet. Newborn manatees average four to four and a half feet in length.
Adult manatees typically weigh around 1,000 pounds but some can weigh as much as 3,500 pounds. At birth, a manatee calf weighs around 60 to 70 pounds.
Life Cycle
Manatee mothers nurse their calves by providing them with milk from teats located just behind their flippers. The mother manatee cares for her calf for about two years. This is a very important time for the manatee calf as, during this time, the adult female teaches her offspring critical survival skills: how to migrate, where the warm water sites are, and where to find forage, freshwater, and sheltered areas.