Meet the Manatees

- The manatee (Trichechus manatus) is a marine mammal native to tropical wetlands of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the southern Atlantic coast of the United States, and northern South America.
- Manatees are mostly herbivores, although they have been known to eat fish and small crustaceans.
- Some scientists say that a manatee's whiskers, or vibrissae, are as sensitive as human fingertips. Vibrissae help manatees navigate the muddy wetlands where they live.
- Manatees are about 1.2 meters (4 feet) long and weigh about 27 kilograms (60 pounds) at birth, and can grow to be 4 meters (13 feet) long and weigh more than 1,360 kilograms (3,000 pounds).
- One of the manatee's closest terrestrial (land-loving) relatives is the elephant. They both have tough skin, bristly body hair, flat teeth that are continually being replaced, and "toenails" on each forelimb.
- Female manatees often grow larger than males. Their greater size helps them support manatee calves.
Websites

Term	Part of Speech	Definition	Encyclopedic Entry
herbivore	Noun	organism that eats mainly plants and other producers.	Encyclopedic Entry: herbivore
manatee	Noun	threatened marine mammal native to the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.
vibrissae	Plural Noun	whiskers.
wetland	Noun	area of land covered by shallow water or saturated by water.	Encyclopedic Entry: wetland

Credits

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Writer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

Editor

Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing

Producer

Caryl-Sue, National Geographic Society

Last Updated

March 26, 2012

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact natgeocreative@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please visit our FAQ page.

Media

Some media assets (videos, photos, audio recordings and PDFs) can be downloaded and used outside the National Geographic website according to the Terms of Service. If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the lower right hand corner () of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.