The Elusive
Florida Manatee…
Manatees are
an intriguing figure of Florida’s coast!
These fully aquatic mammals belong to 3 species. They are:
West African, West Indian, and the Amazonian.
Our Florida
dwellers weigh about 60 pounds at birth!
They have a large flexible upper lip which they use to gather and eat
food. The Manatee will usually breed
every 1 to 2 years, to a single calf.
The calf will stay with his mother between 12-18 months until they have
been weaned. Apart from that time, the
Manatee is a solitary species.
When fully
grown, they weigh up to 1500 pounds!
They can reach up to 12 feet in length.
Sometimes referred to as ‘Sea Cows’ the Manatee must breath air at the
surface. They can however, stay
submerged for up to 15 minutes. When
they are actively swimming, they will surface for air every 3 or 4 minutes.
Like
Dolphin, they show qualities of associative learning. This means they appear to have long term
memory and task learning abilities.
Join us on
our Cruise and maybe you will be lucky enough to see one! #cruise #manatee #cruise #naples #loveflorida
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