The manatis, or manatees, are strange aquatic mammals, with seal-like
heads and whalelike bodies. Compared with whales, their flippers are
more flexible at the joints, and thus can be used much more freely.
They have very small eyes and a heavy upper lip, deeply cleft in the
middle and forming a thick lobe on each side. The skin is hairless and
covered with fine wrinkles.
These animals inhabit the rivers entering the sea and shallow coastal
lagoons on both sides of the Atlantic, in tropical parts of West Africa
and of eastern North and South America. The South American species
ascends the Amazon and its tributaries well up toward their headwaters.
The Florida manati regularly frequents the coast from eastern Florida
to Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies; in summer it sometimes
strays as far north as the coast of Virginia.
This species attains an extreme length of more than 15 feet and a
weight of more than 1,500 pounds, but the average size is much less.
A large specimen exhibited alive at New Orleans the winter of 1912
weighed 1,310 pounds and is reported to have eaten daily from 60 to 100
pounds of grass. One captured near Point Isabel, Texas, measured a few
inches more than 15 feet in length.
Manatis were formerly plentiful in the Indian River and elsewhere
along the Florida coast, but were shot and netted to the verge of
extermination. They were killed not only for amusement by thoughtless
sportsmen, but many were killed by residents for their flesh, which
was salted down like beef for future use. The flesh is said to be well
flavored and not unlike beef.
The imminent danger of the extermination of these curious animals and
their evident value for the interest they lend the coastal waters of
the State led to the passage of protective laws with a penalty of $500.
As a result of this, manatis have increased rapidly. A correspondent,
writing on June 20, 1916, from Ponce Park, on Indian River, says that
at this season scarcely an hour in the day passes but that from one to
half a dozen may be seen in front of his house. He adds that one with
a “calf” about 3 feet long keeps about his dock all the time. In this
vicinity manatis appear to be migratory, leaving about the first of
December and returning in early spring, the first one noted in 1916
appearing on March 26. They are extremely susceptible to cold, as was
demonstrated by the number which perished in Indian River near Micco,
February 12, 1895, when the temperature fell to 20° Fahrenheit. They
are known to winter in Biscayne Bay and elsewhere in southern Florida.
Within a few weeks after the manatis return to the vicinity of Ponce
Park the young are born. Just before this the females are said to seek
the protection of a dock, crib, or bridge, possibly in order that the
new-born young may be safe from the sharks and sawfish which abound in
these waters. Usually there is only one calf, which is about 30 inches
long, but sometimes the mother is seen accompanied by two. During
this season the females are scattered and, with their young, keep in
comparatively shoal water near the shore, and not infrequently lie
in shallow pools with half their bodies exposed. Later in the season
they gather in herds and often 15 to 20 may be seen close together. At
such times they roll about and make a great turmoil in the water. The
Mexicans on the coast of southern Vera Cruz described to me similar
summer gatherings of manatis in small lagoons and claimed they were
there for the purpose of mating.
In fall, near Ponce Park, the larger animals, probably the old males,
separate from the herds and roam about singly. At this time they often
make a peculiar noise like a loud snort, which may be heard for half a
mile or more.
The Florida manatis are extremely mild and inoffensive animals, seeming
never to fight one another, nor to show aggressiveness of any kind.
When not molested they are very gentle and will feed close about a boat
or dock regardless of the presence of people, but they become alarmed
by any sudden noise. In captivity they soon learn to eat from their
captor’s hands.
Manatis are sluggish, stupid animals, without other defense than
their size. They are not rapid swimmers and are among the extremely
few herbivorous aquatic mammals. Unlike seals, whales, and their
allies, which feed upon some form of animal life, manatis feed on the
lush grasses and other vegetation springing from the oozy bottom of
the waters they frequent. When feeding on the bottom they use their
flippers to help move slowly about. In places along the Indian River
they are reported to approach the shore and, with head and shoulders
out of water, to feed on heavy grasslike plants hanging from the banks.
[Illustration: MUSK-OX]
While they are feeding the heavy bi-lobed upper lips work freely and
are sufficiently prehensile to seize the grass, or other plant food,
between the lobes and thrust it back into the mouth. The ends of the
flippers are sometimes used to help convey food to the mouth, like huge
hands in thumbless mittens.
[Illustration: FLORIDA MANATI]
When suckling her young the manati rises to the surface, her head and
shoulders out of the water, and with her flippers holds the nursling
partly clasped to her breast. This semi-human attitude, together with
the rounded head and fishlike tail, may have furnished the basis on
which the ancients built their legends of the mermaids.