by changing the its shapeor by contracting. The peculiar lips of the manatees aid in movement as well as foodconsumption (Bragg). Manatees reach their breeding maturity between three and tenyears of age and have an approximate gestation period of thirteen months. According toDonna Carey, a manatee researcher, West Indian manatees spend most of their daysfeeding along the water bottoms. She remarks “These herbavoric creatures, meaning thatthey eat plants, usually eat ten percent of their body weight daily.”(Carey). An educatorat Sea World consents with Donna’s information about the feeding habits of manateesand also provides me with the actual menu for manatees residing at Sea World in SanDiego. “The West Indian manatees here at Sea World dine on a couple of baskets ofmonkey chow, eight cases of lettuce, five trays of hydroponically grown grasses, bananas, apples, cabbages and vitamins.”(Chris). How appetizing! These puzzlingcreatures spend most of their lives moving between freshwater , brackish, and saltwaterenvironments, but the West Indian Manatees mostly reside in Crystal River waters ofSouthern Florida (U.S.). A manatee is one of the most harmless and helpless marine mammals that livetoday. And yet, it is on our endangered species list. There are only about 1900 WestIndian manatees left in the world today, and that number is rapidly decreasing (SeaWorld). According to a brochure published by Sea World, there have been one hundredand twenty manatee deaths in 1987 and two hundred and eighteen in 1990 (Sea World). These numbers seem to be tragic considering that there are only 1900 of these creaturesleft. I figured out that if the death rates remain constant, the manatee population will bewiped out in less then nine years.So what is happening to all these manatees one might ask. The answer is sad: wehumans are the primary killers of the manatee race. Historically, manatees were huntedf...
