20 photos of manatees doing manatee things and being super-cute
Posted by staff / August 4, 2013 Huffington PostmanateemanateesSea WorldWikipediaYael Weiss
Manatee at Sea World
Awww! Love manatees? Huffington Post has some great photos of them just doing their thing and generally being their cute selves. See link below.
Meanwhile, some manatee factoids from Wikipedia:
- manatees have a mass of 400 to 550 kilograms (880 to 1,200 lb)
- they are about 9 feet long
- they have a large, flexible, prehensile upper lip. They use the lip to gather food and eat, as well as using it for social interactions and communications
- a manatee typically has no more than six teeth in each jaw of its mouth.
- its tail is paddle-shaped
- manatees are unusual amongst mammals in possessing just six cervical vertebrae… All other mammals have seven cervical vertebrae (other than the two-toed and three-toed sloths).
- manatees produce enormous amounts of gas, which contributes to their barrel-shape, to aid in the digestion of their food.
- the Florida subspecies (T. m. latirostris) has been known to live up to 60 years.
- on average, manatees swim at about 5 to 8 kilometres per hour (3 to 5 mph).
- manatees typically breed once every two years, gestation lasts about 12 months, and it takes a further 12 to 18 months to wean the calf. Only a single calf is born at a time and aside from mothers with their young or males following a receptive female, manatees are generally solitary creatures.
See the wonderful photos here: Huffington Post. For more information about manatees, here’s the Wikipedia link: Wikipedia / Manatees.
Photo credit: Wiki Commons – Ahodges7
Very recently a baby manatee was found orphaned in Trinidad. Here is the story. Hopefully it makes a full recovery and can get to adulthood. They are very interesting creatures http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Orphan-manatee-saved-in-Ortoire-215172861.html