Q: How long do manatees live?
A: That's a surprisingly controversial question, despite being well studied by scientists. It's always hard to study the ages of animals living in the wild, and those in captivity may not be representative of the species due to the unique, unnatural conditions in which they are kept. Like the growth rings in a tree trunk, the ear bones of the manatee have rings which tell how old the animal was when it died. A longterm study of over 2,000 manatee carcasses by Meghan Pitchford of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, reported that although some manatees live to be over 50, many don't make it past eight years old. What is most disturbing to scientists is that females are frequently not living long enough to: 1. become wise old mothers who can guide their calves to warm waters during cold spells, or rich supplies of food in a new area if familiar grazing grounds are destroyed by a natural or man-made event; and 2. that they are not living long enough to produce more than one calf. There are varying opinions as to how old a manatee cow must be to become pregnant, ranging from 3 to 5 years. This is actually fairly young for such a big mammal, and has provided some hope for manatee researchers, in that the manatee has the potential to reproduce itself fairly rapidly. A manatee gestates from 11-14 months, and there is a period between calves of about 2-1/2 years, so if she doesn't live past seven years, she may only have replaced herself in the population and not added to it. Sadly, even if a manatee lives a long life, if she's been wounded by accidents with boats, stressed by cold, sickened by ingesting poisons from red tide or human-caused accidents, or unable to find enough food, she still may not be able to reproduce.

Q: Now for the big questions: how many manatees are in Florida, and is the population growing or shrinking in number?
A: The range I usually see when I do my research is 2,000-3,000. Quite a difference in range! A lot of people care about manatees, and numerous attempts are made to count them each year. Aerial counts are one way, but murky water, choppy water or glare on the surface of calm water often frustrate airborne counters. As manatees are well-known to seek the warm waters of power plant discharges during the winter, Florida Power and Light has provided a valuable service by conducting aerial surveys every year since 1977. Both manatees and tourists also flock to the warm waters of natural springs. The town of Crystal Springs hosts over 10,000 manatee-loving visitors each year. Individual manatees are often named, recognized, sadly enough, by the propeller scars on their backs. (Sometimes people have carved their initials on the backs of these harmless giants. I hope our readers have the same reaction to that cruelty as we do in our Team.)

WRT assisted in a scientific study of the Broward manatee population a few years ago; manatees have always been curious about our canoes and certainly are safer when swimming near our type of vessel. One problem is that we don't know how many manatees there were before we began to study them so intensely. In the 1950s, there could have been 10,000 or 500. Some older Floridians claim they see manatees a lot more now: but it could also be that people are now all over Florida, and there are few areas that are not under observation. If more manatees are being hit by boats today than ever before, is it because there are more manatees or more boats?

Perhaps we see more manatees because they feel safer; if anyone harms one in Florida, the person will be punished by the authorities and vilified by the public. But in developing countries, as previously mentioned, manatees are not cute 'n' cuddly, but a source of lots of food and high quality oil. Scientists from the U.S. who travel to these countries to study them learn that manatees are much more elusive there. So, don't make the mistake of thinking that these giant tuber-shaped critters are as dumb as vegetables! The more we study them, the more intriguing they are. Biologically, they are quite improbable creatures.

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