Manatee

the Haytian name of a group of animals related to the whale, but having the thick skin and thin, stiff hair of a black hog. The common manatee is an aquatic animal with a huge, clumsy, seal-shaped body and a large, swollen, soft snout. It is called locally a sea cow. Like other animals of the whale kind, it is supposed to be a degenerate land animal. Its flippers, which are reduced legs, still retain quadruped-like claws. An adult is from seven to fourteen feet in length and weighs from 200 to 1,200 pounds. It lives in the quiet rivers of Southern Florida, in the West Indies, and in western Africa. The front teeth are wanting. The upper lip is split into two lobes, between which vegetation is seized. The animal feeds on manatee grass and other tender aquatic plants. It eats under water. Its presence may be known by bits of vegetation rising to the surface. The tail is spade-shaped and is the main reliance in swimming. The manatee does not come ashore. The cow stands erect on her tail in the water and holds her two calves to her breasts with her weak flippers. She seems very affectionate and solicitous for her young.

The manatee is a stupid, harmless, defenseless animal. In captivity the animal feeds on lettuce, cabbage, spinach, celery, and seaweed. The state of Florida issues permits authorizing the capture of specimens for aquariums. Otherwise, the killing or taking is prohibited under penalty of a fine of $500. The name of Manatee has been given to a county of Florida.

A manatee twenty to thirty feet in length, and weighing possibly 8,000 pounds, lived formerly in Alaskan waters. The navigator, Vitus Bering, and his crew were ship-wrecked on Bering Island and were compelled to winter there. They would have perished of starvation had they not secured the flesh of the ponderous animal. It is believed that the last Arctic seacow was killed in 1854.

See Dugong