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More Manatee Love

Photo from TravelAwaits.com

 

More manatee love today!

Did you know?

 

  • It wasn’t unsual for sailors from long ago to mistake manatees for mermaids!  The scientific name for the zoological order manatees belong to, Sirenia, comes from the word “siren,” a sea creature from Greek mythology whose beautiful songs lured sailors to shipwreck.  In fact, according to a ship log dated January 9, 1493, Christopher Columbus said that on the previous day he “distinctly saw three mermaids, which rose well out of the sea; but they are not so beautiful as they are said to be, for their faces had some masculine traits.”  The reason they weren’t as beautiful as he might have imagined is because they were actually manatees!

 

  • West Indian manatees can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes underwater, but usually surface every three to five minutes for air.  Astonishingly, with a single breath, manatees can replace 90 percent of the air in their lungs; humans, by comparison, replace just 10 percent.

 

  • An adult manatee can grow up to 13 feet long and weigh as much as 1,300 pounds.

 

  • Manatees consume 10 to 15 percent of their body weight in vegetation each day — and we think our snacking is obsessive!

 

  • Pretty placid, manatees swim at an average speed of 3 to 5 miles per hour.

 

  • And they spend 10 to 12 hours a day sleeping — We’re oh-so-jealous!

 

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