Essay On Manatees

Section 1: Manatees belong to the order Sirenia, which also includes the manatee’s relative in the Pacific, the dugong, (Dugongdugon). Sirenians evolved from four-footed land mammals more than 60 million years ago. The presence of tiny pelvic bones in manatees, shaped differently in males and females, is evidence of their terrestrial ancestry. The closest modern relatives of the Sirenia are elephants, aardvarks, and hyraxes, small furry mammals that resemble rodents. These animals are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. They are varied in color from dull gray to brown or black. They all have stout, tapered bodies ending in a flat, rounded tail used for forward propulsion. The forelimbs are modified into flippers; there are no hind limbs. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species in the order Sirenia: the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis), the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), and the West African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis.
All marine mammals have special physiological adaptations for diving. These adaptations enable a manatee to conserve oxygen while under water such as having slower heart rate while diving. Another Manatee’s main behavioral
Large sharks such as tiger and bull sharks, both of which do enter bays, estuaries and river mouths, may pose a threat to Florida manatees in those waters. Other potential predators include American alligators and crocodiles, the latter wide-ranging along the South Florida coast. Orcas, which have been implicated in attacks on dugongs in the Indian Ocean, aren’t particularly common in manatee range. Calves are likely more vulnerable than adults to such