First off, I found an amazing interactive video page that talks about how people and boaters are disturbing the manatees. At this sanctuary, which is at the Three Sisters Spring (A natural hot water spring that manatees frequent in the cold months) at the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River, Florida. Swimmers are allowed here, but are disturbing the peace. This causes manatees to leave the area, and if they do that in the winter they could die from the cold. The fact that there is a sanctuary is wonderful, but they need to ban swimming from the area. This sanctuary is not gated off like a zoo, but its just a place with stricter swimming and boating laws. http://www.sptimes.com/2006/webspecials06/manatees/The taxonomy of the Florida/West Indian Manatee:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Sirenia
Family: Trichechidae
Genus: Trichechus
Species: Manatus
Sub-Species: Latirostris (7)
I had said in previous blogs that manatees need warm water. The minimum temperature a manatee can live in is 68 degrees farenheit. This is relatively warm, and if a manatee can not get hot water, it will die. (7)
I also came across another reason why manatees are dying out. The gestation period for a manatee is a long time. Females reach maturity at age 5, males reach maturity at age 9, therefore a manatee can easily be killed or die before it reaches maturity. The gestation period is also long, it is about 13 months. Mothers nurse their calves underwater for two years, and if a mother dies, the calf will likely die too because of its dependency on her milk. A mother usually births one baby, and twins are uncommon but hear of. Manatee's gestation is a natural cycle, but is a problem because of the human threat. (1,2,4)
Pictures: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Manatee_with_calf.PD.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS8yjXr_w_YKKwi0yHSp-8PUWjngxK9YAMX5imdhmoy9nDNCHUmjFm-nxTJwmVQP1O4E1dlHRX7X92lw-7tIUNBKp_V-qpfyM-gwQZE0haPeWkUaalCTgO7eoNjn_61iy8DmBk_2mnNp1u/s1600-h/manatee.jpg
Why is warm water so important to the manatee?
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the water temperature aspect. Its sad that humans are the ones causing them to go to the cool temperatured water.
ReplyDeleteDo you think they will ever ban swimming in the sanctuary?
ReplyDeleteWow, 13 months is very long! Do you think the babies will be able to adapt to the changing climate?
ReplyDeleteI really feel like they should ban swimmer from this area. And obviously people do always follow rules so maybe they should gate off the area for a bit so that people realize that cant go there and then after a few years they should take the gate down and let the manatees live in peace.
ReplyDeleteI dont know why warm water is necessary, it just is. Manatees can't function in the cold. Hopefully they will ban swimming, because nobody wants to see the manatees leave. The climate is changing at a faster pace than the manatees being born.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with a gate is that manatees would not be able to freely go there. I think that they should build a dock so people can go out and see the manatees, without having to swim with them.
ReplyDeleteSince global warming seems to be a problem in our world, do you think that the population will be able to increase because the temperature has been increasing in most places? If so, that could mean that the problem of the manatee being endangered would be less severe. On the other hand, then global warming is more of a problem, but that is not what we are talking about on this blog :)
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