Animal · United States, Mexico, Cuba
Manatee
Trichechus manatus — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The manatee, sometimes called a sea cow, is a slow-moving, gentle giant that grazes on underwater plants in warm coastal waters. It lives along the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
Picture credit: Michael Barera (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Michael Barera (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Vicpeters (CC BY 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the manatee live?
Home: Warm, shallow coasts and rivers of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
In the wild you find it in: United States, Mexico, Cuba, Belize, Bahamas.
Conservation status from the IUCN: vulnerable.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 2.7–3.5 m long. It weighs about 400 kilograms. On the menu: plants.
The story behind it
Manatees spend most of the day grazing on seagrass and other water plants, eating up to 50 kg of food daily to fuel their large body, which has led to their nickname 'sea cow'. They have no natural predators as adults, but they cannot survive in water colder than about 20 degrees Celsius, so in winter many manatees gather at warm-water springs and power plant outflows to avoid getting cold-stressed. Despite their bulk, manatees are gentle and slow-moving, usually swimming at a relaxed 8 km/h, which sadly makes them vulnerable to collisions with fast boats, one of the leading causes of manatee deaths and injuries today. Manatees are surprisingly closely related to elephants rather than to seals or dolphins. Conservation efforts, including boat speed zones, have helped some populations but the species remains vulnerable.
Find it on the globe
Manatee is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
What do manatees eat?
Manatees are herbivores that graze almost entirely on seagrass and other water plants, eating as much as 50 kg of food a day. This huge appetite for plants is why they are sometimes called 'sea cows'.
What animal is a manatee's closest relative?
Surprisingly, a manatee's closest living relatives are elephants, not seals or dolphins. Both groups share an ancient common ancestor and still have some similar features, like fingernail-like structures on their flippers.
Why are manatees in danger from boats?
Manatees swim slowly and often near the surface in shallow water, which puts them at high risk of being struck by fast-moving boats. Boat collisions are one of the leading causes of injury and death for manatees today.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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