Genus: Trichechus ManateesSea CowsDugongs

Florida has the West Indian Manatee

Have a pair of front flippers and a paddle-shaped tail

Swim using up and down motion of tail

Vegetarians Minimum population

4,480 manatees, as of January 2011.

Round body, well padded with blubber

Wrinkled skin with few scattered hairs

Strictly aquatic Mammals

Slow-moving yet graceful underwater

Live in peaceful groups

About 1300 pounds

4.5 m (15 feet) long

Most closely related to elephants

Steller’s Sea Cow – Largest Sirenian; Extinct in 1768

Slaughtered for meat Huge – 25 feet

Sirenians utilized for their meat, hide and oil-rich blubber

Reproduce slowly – 1 calf every 3 years

The coast of Georgia is usually the northernmost range of the West Indian Manatee

Prolonged exposure to water temperatures below 68 °F (20 °C) can cause death.

Florida manatees can move freely between salinity extremes.

Dugong – strictly marine From East Africa Numbers are critically

low

Manatee - T. manatus in green Amazonian Manatee - T. inunguis in

red Dugong - T. senegalenis in orange