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characterized by their spindle-shaped body with few external protuberances that tapers to a speculate tail (resembling a paddle).

They also have a thick tough gray or gray-brown wrinkled skin, stiff whiskers on their upper lip

Whiskers, called vibrissae, which serve as a sensory nerve function. Each vibrissa has its own separate follicular blood supply and nerve endings.

All manatees have a split upper lip. They use both parts of the lip to help put food in their mouths.


Because grasses aren't very nutritious they feed on huge quantities. Up to 100 pounds a day
This has also given them a very slow metabolism.

Manatees have "marching molars", their only kind of teeth. Throughout a manatee's life, the molars are constantly replaced, an adaption to their diet of abrasive vegetation.

Some may weigh up to 3000 pounds, but averages lie between 1000 -1500 pounds pounds. One particularly large Florida manatee weighed 1,655 kg (3,650 lb.). Females are generally larger than males. Lengths of 10-12 feet

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Share a common ancestor with elephants, aardvark, & hyrax (large rodent) –link made by common dental structure –DNA evidence

Swimming speeds of up to 20mph have been recorded, but normally manatees prefer to cruise at speeds of at 2-6mph

•No collarbone unlike most mammals, they have six rather than seven cervical vertebrae, so they must turn their whole bodies to look round.

Florida manatee feeds on more that 60 varieties of grasses and plants.

A manatee's only teeth are molars, for grinding vegetation. Their extra-dense bones enable them to stay suspended at or below the water's surface. They can move freely between freshwater and saltwater habitats. Manatees that are found in fresh water often have algae growing on their backs.

Manatees that are found in salt water sometimes will have barnacles attached to them

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–West African Manatee –Amazonian Manatee –West Indian Manatee
•Antillean Manatee
•Florida Manatee

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Watercraft Death may result from propeller wounds, impact, crushing, or any combination of the three.

• Poaching for their meat, hide, bones and fat • Entanglement crab traps and fishing gear. Manatees can also ingest harmful debris.

• Habitat Loss - Coastal development and pollution can seriously harm manatee habitats by affecting their main food source, seagrass.

• Canal Locks and Flood Gates - Manatees are sometimes crushed in gates or killed by asphyxiation.

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Red tide toxins accumulate in sea squirts which adhere to sea grasses. This poison is ingested incidentally by manatees feeding on sea grasses

susceptible to changes in water temperature because of their low metabolic rate.

water temperatures fall below 21o C, (70oF) they can die due to malnourishment from not eating properly exposure to long-term moderate cold (called cold stress syndrome), or hypothermia and pneumonia or other such related illnesses.

Manatees in Florida migrate to electric power plant discharge areas or Florida's naturally warm springs when waters turn cold.

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The Manatee Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP) post-release monitoring devices has been placed on rehabilitated Florida manatees. “The goal of the manatee rescue and rehabilitation program is to treat sick and injured manatees and release them back into the wild

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manatee tracking has been accomplished through the use of very high frequency (VHF) and Argos-monitored radio-tags and ARGOS satellite tracking.

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The satellite tag) are composed of a transmitter encased in a waterproof container, (called Platform Transmitter Terminals (PTTs). Due to the attenuation of radio signals by saltwater, it is necessary for the radio's antenna to be out of the water when transmitting. The transmitter's canister is designed to be buoyant with the antenna sticking above the water surface whenever the manatee is within six feet of the surface

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The locations of the Platforms were calculated by measuring the Doppler Effect on transmission frequency On each overpass, as a satellite approaches the PTT, the frequency received will be higher than the nominal transmitted frequency (401.650 MHz) whereas lower frequencies will be received as it moves away from the PTT. The system estimates two possible PTT locations, which are symmetrical on each side of the satellite ground track and selects one of these as plausible information is collected by the satellite, the satellite in turn, stores and relays the manatee data in real-time to Earth-based listening stations by a regional antenna in the satellites' path. ARGOS computers determine the location of the manatee with this information. After this is done, the data locations are sent to the project scientists over the Internet, which is “accurate to about 0.6 miles”

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part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS). NDBC designs, develops, operates, and maintains a network of data collecting buoys and coastal stationThe Coastal-Marine Automated Network (C-MAN) Stations

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Water temperature is taken by a buoy internal thermistor, and Ocean Temperature is taken with direct water contact. Info transmits data through an electronic payload to one of NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) each hour. These satellites send data message to the “NESDIS Data Acquisition Processing System (DAPS). DAPS system relays the information received to the National Weather Service Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG), where it is refortified and “quality control measurements” are taken. This data is lastly distributed in meteorological codes in real time (usually in less than 30 minutes), to computer databases around the world

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Factors that contribute to errors are associated with: –geometric conditions of the satellite's orbit (e.g., distance of satellite ground track from PTT, error in orbital determination) –PTT itself (e.g., signal strength, number of messages, stability of frequency of transmitted signal). measurements are within .1 Degree Celsius accuracy. The temperature sensors at C-MAN sites make point measurements, but the sensors are at fixed distances relative to the bottom; therefore, the thermistor is at different depths throughout the day owing to changing water levels.