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Manatee Motherhood:
The most important bond in a manatee's life is with its mother. Manatees reach maturity at approximately five years; one or rarely two calves are born every two to three years after a gestation period of 13 months. Calves may be born at any time during the year. Cows may nurse calves up to two years. Usually only one calf is born, but twins do occur. Newborn calves weighing up to 70 pounds are 4_ feet long. They nurse underwater for about three minutes at a time from a nipple located behind their mother's forelimb. Born with teeth, calves begin eating plants within a few weeks but remain with their mother for up to two years. Manatees communicate with each other by emitting sounds underwater that are audible to humans. The vocalizations, which sound like squeaks and squeals, are especially important for maintaining contact between mother and calf. One field report described a mother and her calf, separated by a flood gate, calling to each other for three hours without interruption until they were reunited.
Getting There:
For more information and driving directions contact: Citrus County Tourist Development Council at: visit@citrus.infi.net The closest cities would be Crystal River, Inverness and Homosassa, Florida. Less than 1_ hours drive from Orlando, Tampa or Daytona airports.
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We were truly amazed the first time we touched a manatee, which feels somewhat like touching an elephant. They have thick brown-to-gray leathery wrinkled skin; very tiny eyes, stiff whiskers dotting their mouth and very wrinkled faces. Hair grows sparsely over their large body, and they appear similar to a sea lion or walrus without tusks. They emit a repertory of loud snorts and are believed to be close relatives of the elephant and a small rodent-like animal known as a hyrax. Manatees are believed to have evolved from a wading, plant-eating animal.
A manatee is big, we’d say very big, measuring 10 to 15 feet and weighing one ton, although some larger than 12 feet and weighing as much as 3,500 pounds have been recorded. Once you’re in their world, however, it's hard to distinguish size. They devour over four to nine percent of their body weight each day (200 pounds of greens) by eating five to eight hours daily to maintain their rotund shape. They're strictly herbivores, but they eat a great variety of aquatic plant species, including water hyacinth, hydrilla and water lettuce. Much to our surprise this official marine mammal of Florida is also nearsighted.
Very slowly we entered the water, trying not to disturb them and also trying to keep down the amount of sediment on the bottom of the river. Upon our descent, some of the manatees were still sleeping while others were slow-paddling around. Swimming with the manatees is actually not at all difficult. There were young children as well as seniors on our trip, and there was no hesitation about meeting up with these big guys. There was only an abundant feeling of energy and curiosity among us all. continued....
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