If you are a Floridian, (and even if you are not) when you think of the sunshine state, certain things or symbols come to your mind. It could be our warmer climate, the beaches, oranges or even an alligator. However, there is another animal, a gentle giant and an enduring ambassador to Florida waters. It is a sea cow or the manatee.
In this paper I will impart the bare facts about manatee such as: habitat, eating habits, size and mating. I will discuss their declining numbers with ways all of us who enjoy these waters can make a difference and talk about one special cow, named “Snooty”.
The manatee, they belong to the Sirenian species. Do you see the word siren there? Many believe the legends and folklore of the mermaid may have originated with these creatures. When you get a close up view of these slow, enormous, sea cows this may produce hilarity. The manatee can measure up to thirteen feet in length and weigh as much as 1300 pounds. They have a brownish, grey exterior, with whiskers on their snout. They resemble more of a walrus to some extent and for a while were even placed in that family. That description is a far cry from what most’ mental image of a “mermaid” would be. Mermaids have long hair, beautiful, are topless or have a shell top with a long paddle like fin. (OK so at least the latter stays true) The manatees class is mammalian and their family is Trichechidae. There are three types of manatees; the Amazonian, the West Indian and West African. As stated manatees resemble a walrus and were believed to be related to them. (Reynolds, Odell, 1991) However, research has them actually related to that of the elephant. Manatees are herbivores; human equivalent of a vegetarian. They eat a variety of submerged, emergent...
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...the way but they are not fast enough (Bloch, 1993)
Since 1976, 5 percent of all manatees die each year. In 2011 Fish and Wildlife proposed providing year around protection. At the Humane Societies website, a variety of ways that we can all help are listed. Such as: buy a license plate for funding, join the “adopt a manatee program”, report manatees in trouble, do not harass them or jump on them. Since the leading cause of their death is boat related, the biggest thing you can do is slow down and stay in deep water away from their habitats. It is also recommended that if you are a boater buy polarized glasses. These cut down on glares and allow you to see below water surfaces. If all of us who live in Florida or visit Florida do become more aware and obey the laws, the only way we will know of these gentle giants existence is in captivity; which leads me to Snooty…
Alden, Peter, Rich Cech, and Gil Nelson. 1998. National Audubon Society Field Guide to Florida. New York: Knopf. 2. Brown, Larry W. 1997.
Throughout the animal kingdom, adaptations take place continuously and even the smallest of changes can leave a significant impact. Examples can be seen within any plant or animal. One example would include sea turtles, specifically, the Loggerhead Turtles. These turtles are native to the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea (Deurmit L 2007). They thrive in either temperate or tropical climates and can live in a myriad of biomes (Deurmit L 2007). These biomes include the pelagic, reef, coastal, and brackish water (Deurmit L 2007). Loggerhead turtles are omnivores and can eat anything from insects to aquatic crustaceans, to macro algae (Deurmit L 2007). According to Deurmit (2007) Caretta caretta is classified into Animalia Kingdom, Chordata Phylum, Vertebrata Subphylum, Reptilian Class, Testudines’ Order,
Manatees, commonly called Sea Cow, are large aquatic mammals that are found in warm coastal areas, rivers and warm water springs in the Amazon Basin, West Africa, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the Southeastern United States. Manatees can be found in salt water, fresh water and brackish water. They spend most of their time eating aquatic plants, resting, migrating and nurturing their young. The manatee species has evolved over the last 45 million years. The adult manatee evolved into an average of approximately 10 feet long and weighs between 800 and 1,200 pounds (Site This).
Levin, T. (1998, June/July). Listening to wildlife in the Everglades. National Wildlife, 36, 20- 31. McCally, D. (1999). The Everglades: An Environmental History. Gainsville: University Press of Florida.
Shirihai, H. and B. Jarrett (2006). Whales, Dolphins and Other Marine Mammals of the World. Princeton, Princeton University Press. p.185-188.
Whales living in captivity become aggravated and have been known to take out anger on themselves by self harming. In the pools they live in, metal bars are placed in between the pools to prevent the killer whales from swimming to another pool. On several occurrences, the whales have attempted to bite and break the metal bars. This leaves the whales with broken teeth and a risk of infection. Infections in killer whales can lead to death in many cases. If a whale gets an infection, they have to be taken out of the pool and placed into another pool by themselves to prevent any problems with other killer whales they live with. In many cases, whales with infections need serious care from whale specialists.
The author of the article states, according to the U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service, it estimated that 6,350 manatees reside along the coastal Southeastern states, a count that led the
Sworn to protect Colombia, the United States held them in battle, and forced them to recognize a new country whose land and people were once theirs. This battle, known as Panama’s Revolution, which started on November 3rd of 1903, was due to America’s greed and hunger for land. This land would be used to build not only a canal for the world, but to build an American empire. The United States desperately needed a canal by 1898, during the Spanish-American war, and would stop at nothing to get it. President Theodore Roosevelt, who came into office in 1901 after the death of President McKinley, led the country in the biggest investment of its time, investing hundreds of millions of dollars and years of hard labor into a canal. In order to become an imperialistic power, the United States needed to gain control of overseas territory by creating and upholding a canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to make traveling not only faster in war situations for America, but less costly.
Cetaceans are thought to be some of the most intelligent species on this planet. Popular culture has embraced the idea of cetacean intelligence with shows such as the 1960s hit TV series Flipper, where a dolphin is used to help fight crime. In his comedic science fiction novels, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, author Douglas Adams suggests that dolphins are the second most intelligent creatures on Earth, behind mice and above humans. Although most scientists would probably argue that humans are the most intelligent species, the behavior and brain size of dolphins and other cetaceans suggests that they too are intelligent. This paper will briefly describe the reason some scientists believe cetaceans are intelligent species and then give examples of scientific studies, which suggest cetacean intelligence. Since bottlenose dolphins and orcas are the most widely studied cetaceans, the survey of field studies will primarily focus on these two species. At the end, this paper provides an argument of why some scientists discredit the high degree of cetacean intelligence.
The manatee is a large, bulky aquatic mammal with flippered forelimbs and a spatula-shaped tail. Manatees can grow to 12 feet in length and weigh up to 3500 pounds. They may live to be 50 years old. It might be very difficult to imagine, but manatees (also known as 'sea cows') share a common ancestor with elephants, but did not evolve from the elephant, the elephant is considered the manatee's closest living relative. The manatee's vaguely human-like face is sometimes described as one only a mother could love. Indeed, it is difficult to understand how sailors ever mistook a manatee for a beautiful
The canal was the best thing that ever happened to Panama. The Panama Canal was started under President Roosevelt and completed by his successor, William Howard Taft. The canal was built across an isthmus, a narrow body of land that connects two larger land areas, which connects North and South America. In some places in Panama the isthmus is only 50 miles across. The French started the canal in the late 1800’s. They had just built the then famous Suez Canal with relative ease. The Suez Canal, unlike the Panama Canal, was a straight canal on level ground, in a relatively dry climate. The French had failed in building the Panama Canal because of the tropical climate, in which deadly tropical diseases consumed their workers, and because of the mountain range in which they could not cut through. He had planned to build the canal in the way of the Suez Canal, straight and sea level. You can see the trouble with trying to cut out that much land, through the mountain range, making it at sea level. The Americans tried their hand in the early 1900’s. Three main people helped made the canal a success. Teddy Roosevelt was one of those people; he saw the military importance of a canal. He called for the cruiser, Oregon, to sail around South America from San Francisco to Cuba so it could be present in the battle at Santiago Bay. The entire journey took ten weeks. He was the driving force in getting the permission to build the canal because he realized the importanc...
Mermaid Rights Everyone has their own perceptions on things of any nature whether they be bad or good. However, when it comes to an individual, treating someone differently just by the way they look is just inhumane and quite cruel. In one case, although women’s rights have greatly grown since the 19th century, women still endure the unequal rights from some people and the dominance men have in the nation. This concept can be related to Jeannine Gailey’s poem, “Here There Be Monsters” by examining how the ‘fantasized mermaid’ describes how a man treats her just because she looks different and also hints at the fact that the ‘Here’ may be the surface world and how cruel it is seen by another perspective.
weasels, skunks, river otters; Family: Mustelidea (sea otters are the only exclusively marine member of this family)
One of these creatures, the mermaid, is the mostly widely known creature from Scottish folklore (Harris 10). People all over the U.S. enjoy different forms of entertainment that depict varying versions of mermaids. Scottish folklore tells of violent creatures of the
Introduction One particularly interesting sea creature is the whale shark, formally known as Rhincondon typus; it was first discovered in 1828 by Andrew Smith (Rowat 2012). This large fish is found globally in warm tropical oceans and prefers to stay within 200 meters of the ocean’s surface in waters ranging from 4.2 to 28.7 degrees Celsius (Stevens 2006). This creature can be found all across the globe in warm tropical seas. Aggregations of whale sharks have been seen off the coast of Australia at times, although it is primarily a creature of solitude. Whale sharks are filter feeders that consume plankton as well as small fish and are harmless to humans.