Sea cow: description, nutrition, behavior and extinction. Manatee or sea cow

According to legends and stories of sailors, people learned about mysterious sirens that lured ships to reefs near the coast. Having compared the stories and facts, scientists have come to the conclusion that these are not fictions and the prototypes of the sirens were now extinct mammals from the siren order, which includes dugongs, manatees and sea cows.

Sea cows are herbivorous marine animals that feed on algae. They had a calm disposition and were not at all afraid of people, which is how they earned their name.

Generic affiliation of sea cows

There are two species of the largest marine mammals in the genus:

• Hydradamalis Cuesta.
• sea ​​cows

According to scientists, the former are the historical ancestors of the latter. were first described in the seventies, when animal remains were found in California. Scientists suggest that these mammals disappeared from the face of the earth more than two million years ago due to climate change. But they left behind a more adapted species - sea cows. The animals lived in the quiet calm waters of the northern part Pacific Ocean , where there was enough vegetation for food.

A little history

The first meeting of people with sea cows occurred in 1741 during a shipwreck Vitus Bering. The ship tried to land on the island, but crashed. Many crew members and the captain were killed, and the island was named after Bering A.

A naturalist doctor took part in the expedition Georg Steller, who described amazing animals. After the crash, his attention was attracted by large oblong objects near the shore. At first the scientist mistook them for overturned boats, but soon realized that they were large marine mammals. During his ten months on the island, Steller studied the habits and lifestyle of animals and was the first to describe them. That's why mammals were called Steller cows, in honor of the discoverer.

All later mentions of sea ​​creatures were based on the works of Steller, which were published ten years after the shipwreck. Steller suggested that the unknown mammals were manatees. But as the new kind Steller's cows were described by the German zoologist E. Zimmermann in 1780.

Official name Hydrodamalis gigas - water or giant cow was assigned to animals in 1794 by the Swedish biologist A. J. Retzius. A great contribution to the study of mammals was made by zoologist Leonard Steineger, who was actively interested in Steller’s biography and organized an expedition to the Commander Islands in 1882 - 1883, where he collected many skeletal remains of sea cows.

Appearance of a Steller cow

With time sea ​​cows acquired other names, one of which is cabbages. They belong to the siren squad and are very similar to their relatives, but significantly exceed them in size.

1. These were very large animals, up to ten meters long and weighing up to five tons. The body of sea cows was large and powerful, and the head was unnaturally small. The neck was short, but very mobile, so Steller’s cows freely turned their heads in different directions, as well as up and down.
2. The limbs of mammals were represented by rounded flippers with horny growths at the ends, similar to horse hooves. The back of the body ended in a horizontal tail blade with a depression in the center.
3. The skin of the cabbages was very thick and gathered into folds, which made it look like the bark of an old oak tree. And when the remains of the skin reached a German scientist, he found out that the strength and elasticity of animal skins was comparable to modern car tires. It is therefore not surprising that leather was used by hunters as a material for boats.
4. On the small head there were small eyes and ears. The structure of the inner ear indicates good hearing, but the animals did not react to the noise of approaching boats and calmly allowed people to approach them.
5. The mouth was outlined by soft movable lips covered with vibrissae with a diameter of 2 - 3 mm. Upper lip was whole and did not split into two. Steller cows had no teeth, and they ground food using horny plates.

Scientists have not identified any pronounced sexual differences in mammals; they suggest that females differed from males only in size. The latter had a more powerful and larger structure.

Sea cows rarely made vocal calls. They only snorted as they inhaled the air. And when the animals were injured or injured, they heard loud moans.

Animal behavior and lifestyle

Most of the time, mammals moved slowly through shallow water, resting on the bottom with flippers. This is how they got their food. The backs of cows were always above the water and became a source of food for birds, which obtained crustaceans from the folds of the skin.

1. Family connections. Cabbage farmers gathered in large herds. Adults surrounded the young and the animals’ attachment to each other was quite strong. Steller's cows came close to the shore, and their family affection could be observed. The male and female were always accompanied by the cubs of the current and previous year. If the female died, then the male and cubs swam to her body within three days.
2. Reproduction. Little is known about how sea cows reproduced. Steller described that the mating season occurred in the spring and the animals were monogamous, that is, mating took place with one partner, whom the female chose from several contenders.
3. Caring for offspring. Gestation of the cub lasted about a year. The newborn Steller calf weighed about thirty kilograms and reached one and a half meters in length. For the first two years, the female constantly follows the cub and teaches him to live independently. And after the allotted time, the grown manatees begin independent life, but scientists have proven that the family connection with the mother continues throughout life.
4. Nutrition. The diet of sea cows consisted of various algae, but the main delicacy was seaweed. Hence the name - “cabbage”. While foraging, the animals submerged their heads under water for a while, and when they emerged for air, they made snorting sounds. In winter, mammals lost a lot of weight and their ribs were visible under their skin.

When resting, the cows lay on their backs and drifted motionless in the coastal waters. Cabbage plants were slow, and their life expectancy reached 90 years.

Scientists were unable to identify natural enemies, but it is known that many representatives became victims of natural elements. They crashed on rocks during a storm and died under the ice in winter.

The main destroyer of Steller's cows was man. It was easy to hunt animals because they allowed people to approach them without fear. From one individual it was possible to obtain more than three tons of meat, which was enough to feed a tribe of 35 people for a month.

Habitat

Studies of animal remains have shown that the habitat of Steller's cows became more extensive about 20 thousand years ago, when the last glaciation occurred and Northern Ocean separated from the Pacific by land. This caused the sea cows to spread far to the north, along the Asian coast.

In the 60s and 70s, the remains of cows were found in Japan, California, along the Aleutian ridge and the coast of Alaska.

Later, the distribution area of ​​sea cows shrank and was limited to the territory of the Commander Islands. This happened due to unsystematic hunting and natural reasons. And by the time of discovery, mammals were already on the verge of extinction.

Is Steller's cow extinct?

To the question: is the sea cow extinct or not, scientists answer unequivocally "Yes". The animals were completely exterminated in less than thirty years from the moment of their discovery. Trusting and friendly animals moved very slowly, so they became easy prey.

According to official data, cabbageweeds are considered extinct and are listed in the Black Book. Scientists believe that at the time of discovery the number of animals was about three thousand. Hunting restrictions were immediately established, and no more than 17 individuals were allowed to be slaughtered per year. But smugglers continued their illegal extermination and the actual figure increased tenfold. As a result of such rapid extermination, in 1768 the last sea cow disappeared from the face of the earth.

But the means mass media and television from time to time cover news about rare encounters between humans and animals. There is an opinion that after the official announcement of the inclusion of the sea cow in the Black Book, the animal was seen off the coast of Bering Island.

There are also several references to encounters with Steller cows already in the 20th century. Neither claim has been documented, but some scientists believe that in remote and inaccessible parts of the ocean there may be a small group of these amazing animals that could become the first domesticated marine life.

Modern relatives of sea cows

Today at sea ​​waters you can meet the closest relatives of the sea cow - these are dugongs. These are the only known members of the family. They are inferior to their predecessors in size and reach a length of six meters and a weight of up to 600 kg.

The largest population of dugongs was recorded off the coast of the Great Barrier Reef in the Torres Strait. They are very similar to cabbage ducks in structure and lifestyle, so they also became victims of hunting.

The harm caused by humans to wildlife for the sake of meat, skins and fur is very difficult to overestimate. And today, dugongs are also listed in the Red Book as a vulnerable species. If people do not stop the criminal extermination of rare animals, then soon dugongs will be eaten just like sea cows.

Steller's work and numerous remains of sea cows made it possible to study these mammals quite fully. Their skin bones are not rare finds, so in museums around the world you can see dummies of sea cows that very accurately convey the appearance of the animals.

In legends and stories of sailors, there are often references to mermaids and mysterious sirens. Maybe there is some truth in their words. After all, many contemporaries believe that they were inspired by the amazing animals of the Sirenian order, including dugongs, manatees and sea cows.

Genus Sea cows

Their second name is hydrodamalis. The genus includes only two species of very large mammals, which are characterized by an aquatic lifestyle. The habitat was limited to the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Animals preferred quiet and calm waters, where they would be provided with a sufficient amount of plant food, and a lot of it was required.

The sea cow is a herbivore whose main diet was algae. Actually, for such a way of life and peaceful disposition, they received such a name by analogy with their land namesakes.

The genus includes two species: Hydrodamalis Cuesta and Steller's cow. Moreover, the first, according to scientists, is historical ancestor second. Hydrodamalis Cuesta was first described in 1978 based on remains found in California (USA). This species became extinct approximately 2 million years ago. The exact reasons are not named, from the hypothetical - cooling and the beginning of the era ice age, which resulted in a change in habitat, a decrease in food supply, etc. However, according to scientists, before complete disappearance this sea cow gave rise to a new and more adapted species.

Sea, or Steller's, cow

In fact, the first name is generic, and the second is specific. This species is also sometimes called cabbageweed, which is due to the type of nutrition. As already mentioned, the ancestors of the animals described are Hydrodamalis Cuesta. Steller's cow was first discovered and described during the expedition of V. Bering. On board the ship there was the only specialist with a natural science education - Georg Steller. In fact, this animal was later named after him. One day, while on the shore after a shipwreck, he noticed large objects swaying in the waves, having an oblong shape and resembling boats turned upside down. But it soon became clear that these were animals. The cabbageweed (sea cow) was described by G. Steller in sufficient detail; he did this using the example of a large female, sketches were drawn up, and observations regarding nutrition and lifestyle were recorded. Therefore, most of the later works are based on his research. The photo shows the skeleton of a sea cow.

The external structure and appearance of cabbageweed are characteristic of all representatives of the Siren order. The only significant difference is that it was much larger than its contemporaries in size. The body of the animals was ridged and thick, and the head, relative to its proportions, was small, but mobile. The pair of limbs were flippers, short and rounded, with a horny growth at the end, often compared to a hoof. The body ended with a wide tail blade, which had a notch in the middle and was located in a horizontal plane.

It is noteworthy what kind of body coverings the animal had. The sea cow, according to G. Steller, had skin reminiscent of oak bark, it was so strong, thick and all in folds. Later, studies of the preserved remains made it possible to establish that in terms of its performance it resembled modern rubber. This quality was clearly protective in nature.

The jaw apparatus had a rather primitive structure, the sea cow ground food with the help of two horny plates (on the upper and lower jaw), there were no teeth. The animal had an impressive size, which was one of the main factors in active fishing for it. The maximum recorded body length is 7.88 meters. It is worth noting that a medium-sized female (about 7 m) has a body circumference of wide place was about 6 meters. Accordingly, the body weight was enormous - several tons (from 4 to 10). It is the second largest (after whales) marine animal.

Behavioral features

The animals were inactive and clumsy. They spent most of their lives in the process of absorbing food. They swam slowly, preferred shallow water, and relied on the ground with the help of large fins. Sea cows are believed to be monogamous and lived in families that gathered in large herds. Their diet consisted exclusively of coastal algae, namely seaweed, hence the name.

Animals were characterized by a fairly high life expectancy (up to 90 years). There is no information about natural enemies. G. Steller in his descriptions mentioned the death of animals in winter period under the ice, and also during strong storm from hitting rocks. Many zoologists say that, having such an “agile” disposition, the cabbage duck could become the first aquatic pet.

The animal is officially considered extinct and is listed in the Black Book. The main reason is the active extermination of Steller cows by humans. By the time this species was discovered, it was already rare. Scientists suggest that at that time the number of cabbage weeds was about 2-3 thousand. In this state of affairs, the slaughter of no more than 15-17 individuals per year was permissible. In reality, this figure was almost 10 times higher. As a result, around 1768, the last representatives of this species disappeared from the face of the earth. The task was simplified by the fact that Steller's cow led a sedentary lifestyle, did not know how to dive and was not at all afraid of the approach of people. The main purpose of hunting for cabbage is to obtain meat and fat, which had high taste qualities, and the skins were used to make boats.

The media and television periodically raise the topic that sometimes a sea cow is found in remote corners of the ocean. Is the cabbage plant extinct or not? Scientists will answer this question unequivocally in the affirmative. Whether we should believe the “eyewitnesses” is a big question, because for some reason no one has provided photo and video materials.

Related species

The closest relative of the cabbage weed among the mammals currently living in sea waters, according to many scientists, is the dugong. The sea cow and he belong to the same family. The dugong is its only representative in the modern period. It is significantly smaller in size, the maximum recorded body length is about 5.8 meters, and the weight is up to 600 kg. The thickness of its skin is 2.5-3 cm. The largest population of dugongs (about 10 thousand individuals) now lives in the Torres Strait and off the coast of the Great Barrier Reef.

Possessing a structure and lifestyle similar to the cabbage, this animal also became an object of hunting. And now the dugong is also listed in the Red Book under the status of a vulnerable species. The sea cow was, unfortunately, eaten in the truest sense of the word. I would like to believe that at least one representative of the Dugoniev family will still be preserved.

Sea cow or Steller's cow or also cabbage cow - exterminated by man mammal of the order of sirens. Discovered in 1741 by the expedition of Vitus Bering. It received its name in honor of the naturalist Georg Steller, the expedition doctor, on whose descriptions much of the information about this animal is based.

Steller's cow was discovered by naturalist Georg Steller in 1741 under very tragic circumstances. On the way back from Alaska to Kamchatka, the ship of the Vitus Bering expedition was washed ashore on an unknown island, where the captain and half of the crew died during a forced winter. Later this island was named after Bering. It was here that the scientist Steller first saw a sea cow, which was later named after the researcher.

In those years, a huge number of these harmless mammals inhabited the Commander Islands, also found in Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. What was a sea cow? It is large (up to 10 meters long and weighs up to 4 tons) with a forked tail that looks like a whale's. This harmless creature lived in shallow bays, feeding on seaweed, which earned itself another name - cabbage weed.

Extermination

The sea cow treated people with great confidence, swimming so close to the shores that one could even stroke it. But, unfortunately, many people had no time for tenderness, and the meat of the sea cow turned out to be tasty, in no way inferior to beef. The local population especially loved the lard of this mammal - it had a very pleasant smell and taste, and was superior in quality to the lard of other marine and domestic animals. This fat had unique property- can be stored for a long time even on the hottest days. The cow also gave milk - fatty and sweet, similar to sheep's milk.

In his works, Steller noted the extraordinary forgivingness of animals. If a sea cow swam too close to the shore was hurt, it would move away, but soon forget the insult and return again. Sea cows were caught using large hooks to which a long rope was tied. The catcher was in the boat, and about thirty people stood on the shore and held the rope.

A significant role in the disappearance of the sea cow was played by its excessive greed for food. These insatiable animals ate constantly, which forced them to keep their heads under water. Safety and caution were unknown to Steller's cows, and fishermen took advantage of the gullibility and carelessness of mammals - you could simply sail between them in boats and choose a suitable victim.

Several complete skeletons of the sea cow, small pieces of skin and many scattered bones have survived to this day. Most of them became museum exhibits, like the world's most complete skeleton of Steller's cow, which is kept in Khabarovsk local history museum them. Grodekova. An important contribution to the study of the sea cow was made by the American zoologist of Norwegian origin, Steller biographer Leonard Steineger, who conducted research on the Commanders in 1882-1883 and collected a large number of bones of this animal.

Appearance and structure

The appearance of the cabbage cow was characteristic of all sirens, with the exception that the Steller's cow was much larger than its relatives in size. The animal's body was thick and ridged. The head was very small in comparison with the size of the body, and the cow could freely move its head both to the sides and up and down. The limbs were relatively short, rounded flippers with a joint in the middle, ending in a horny growth, which was compared to a horse's hoof. The body ended in a wide horizontal tail blade with a notch in the middle.

The skin of the sea cow was bare, folded and extremely thick and, as Steller put it, resembled the bark of an old oak tree. Its color ranged from gray to dark brown, sometimes with whitish spots and stripes. One of the German researchers, who studied a preserved piece of Steller cow leather, found that in terms of strength and elasticity it was close to the rubber of modern car tires. Perhaps this property of the skin was a protective device that saved the animal from injury from stones in the coastal zone.

The ear openings were so small that they were almost lost among the folds of skin. The eyes were also very small, according to eyewitness descriptions - no larger than those of a sheep. The soft and mobile lips were covered with vibrissae as thick as the shaft of a chicken feather. The upper lip was not bifurcated. The sea cow had no teeth at all. The cabbage grass ground its food using two horny plates white(one on each jaw). There were, according to various sources, 6 or 7 cervical vertebrae.

The presence of pronounced sexual dimorphism in the Steller cow remains unclear. However, males were apparently somewhat larger than females.

Steller's cow made virtually no sound signals. She usually only snorted, exhaling air, and only when wounded could she make loud moaning sounds. Apparently, this animal had good hearing, as evidenced by the significant development of the inner ear. However, the cows hardly reacted at all to the noise of the boats approaching them.

Nutrition

Most of the time, sea cows fed by swimming slowly in shallow water, often using their forelimbs to support themselves on the ground. They did not dive, and their backs constantly stuck out of the water. Seabirds often sat on the backs of cows and pecked crustaceans (whale lice) attached there from the folds of their skin. The cows came so close to the shore that sometimes you could reach them with your hands.

Usually the female and the male kept together with the young of the year and the young of the previous year, but in general the cows usually kept in large herds. In the herd, the young animals were in the middle. The animals' attachment to each other was very strong. Described as a male during three days swam to a dead female lying on the shore. The cub of another female, slaughtered by industrialists, behaved in the same way. Little is known about the reproduction of cabbage weeds. Steller wrote that sea cows are monogamous, mating apparently took place in the spring.

Sea cows fed exclusively on algae, which grew in abundance in coastal waters, primarily seaweed(which is where the name “cabbage plant” comes from). Feeding cows kept their heads under water while plucking algae. Every 4-5 minutes they raised their heads for a new portion of air, making a sound somewhat reminiscent of a horse snorting. In places where cows fed, the waves washed ashore in large quantities roots and stems of the algae they eat, as well as droppings similar to horse manure. When resting, the cows lay on their backs, drifting slowly in the quiet bays. In general, the behavior of the cabbage girls was characterized by exceptional slowness and apathy. In winter, the cows lost so much weight that an observer could count their ribs.

The life expectancy of the Steller cow, like its closest relative, could reach ninety years. Natural enemies This animal has not been described, but Steller spoke of cases of cows dying under the ice in winter. He also said that during a storm, the cabbage fish, if they did not have time to move away from the shore, often died from being hit by rocks in strong waves.

Evolution and origin of the species

Sea cow - typical representative sirens. Its earliest known ancestor appears to have been the dugong-like Miocene sea cow Dusisiren jordani, whose fossil remains were described in California. A study of mitochondrial DNA showed that the evolutionary divergence of sea cows and dugongs occurred no later than 22 million years ago. The direct ancestor of the cabbage weed can be considered the sea cow Hydrodamalis cuestae, which lived in the late Miocene, about 5 million years ago. Nearest modern relative Steller's cow is most likely a dugong. The sea cow is classified in the same family as dugongs, but it is classified as a separate genus Hydrodamalis.

The sea cow is declared extinct. The status of its population according to the International Red Book is an extinct species. However, it is sometimes believed that for some time after the 1760s, sea cows were occasionally encountered by the natives of the Russian Far East.

Anecdotal evidence

Thus, in 1834, two Russian-Aleut Creoles claimed that on the coast of Bering Island they saw “a skinny animal with a cone-shaped body, small forelimbs, which breathed with its mouth and had no rear fins.” Such reports, according to some researchers, were quite frequent in the 19th century.

Several pieces of evidence that remain unconfirmed even date back to the 20th century. In 1962, members of a Soviet whaler's crew allegedly observed a group of six animals in the Gulf of Anadyr, the description of which was similar to the appearance of a Steller's cow. In 1966, a note about the observation of cabbage grass was published in the newspaper Kamchatsky Komsomolets. In 1976, the editors of the magazine “Around the World” received a letter from Kamchatka meteorologist Yu. V. Koev, who said that he had seen cabbage grass at Cape Lopatka.

None of these observations have been confirmed. However, some enthusiasts and cryptozoologists even now believe that it is likely that a small population of Steller cows exists in remote and inaccessible areas of the Kamchatka Territory. There is a debate among hobbyists about the possibility of cloning cabbage using biological material obtained from preserved samples of skin and bones. If Steller's cow had survived until modern era, then, as many zoologists write, with its harmless disposition, it could become the first marine pet.

A striking representative of mammals that have large sizes, from the genus of sirens is the manatee. It chooses shallow water as its habitat and eats exclusively plant foods. The animal eats approximately thirty kilograms of algae during the day. Apparently this feature was the reason for the appearance of its second name - sea cow.
According to unofficial information, in the old days the sirenaceae genus consisted of more than twenty species. Unfortunately, to modern man Only three are known: manatee, dugong, Steller's cow. The last of the listed representatives was completely destroyed in the 18th century. Vulnerable creatures include dugongs, and manatees are classified as an endangered species.
A large animal, the manatee can weigh more than 400 kilograms, and its length sometimes reaches four meters. And this is not the limit, since the female is heavier and more than a male. Whatever the size of the animal, it is completely harmless. It has a meek, trusting character and is easily tamed in captivity. In nature, there are American, Amazonian, and African manatees.

– on average, an animal lives 60 years,
– a sea cow moves at a speed of 5-7 kilometers per hour, and in a short distance it can reach 30 kilometers,
– according to researchers, the ancestor of manatees is a quadruped land mammal, which lived approximately 50 million years ago,
– close relatives of the animal are elephants, since molars change,
– despite the fact that manatees feed underwater (they can stay in water for about 12 minutes) marine environment), they breathe oxygen.
Animals adapt well to fresh water, and also salty. The sea cow feels comfortable at a depth of one or two meters. The animal does not go deeper than six.
The habitat of the American manatee is considered shallow waters Atlantic off the coast of South, North and Central America. During the cold season, it can be found near Florida, in warm times - in the area of ​​​​Louisiana and Virginia. The animal also chooses the southern waters of the United States and swims near the islands of the Caribbean Sea.

If manatees do not pose any danger to human life, then a rational creature is capable of causing irreparable harm to this good-natured creature. Many years ago, man hunted manatees for fat. delicious meat. Hunting is currently prohibited. However, fishing nets are often the cause of animal death. For example, as shown in the photo, the manatee eats parts of the nets, there may also be debris, as a result, these fragments accumulate in his intestines, which leads to slow death.
The main threat comes from boats, boats, or rather their propellers. The manatee is unable to recognize low-frequency sounds. He only hears high frequencies.
In addition to manatees, dugong is commonly called a sea cow. She can be found in the waters Indian Ocean. This is the smallest representative of the genus of sirens. They cannot be called good swimmers. They usually move close to the bottom. Their movements are careful, measured, and during this time they eat vegetation. The dugong is capable of lifting bottom soil and sand to find roots rich in vitamins, nutrients. Adults have upper teeth that develop into tusks (up to seven centimeters). This makes it easier to obtain tasty herbs. Characteristic traces remain on the bottom, which indicate that a sea cow visited this place and found its delicacy.

November 13th, 2017 , 10:10 am

“The creatures really had a strange appearance and did not look like a whale, a shark, a walrus, a seal, a beluga whale, a seal, a stingray, an octopus, or a cuttlefish.”

“They had a spindle-shaped body, twenty or thirty feet long, and instead of hind flippers they had a flat tail, like a spade of wet leather. Their heads were the most ridiculous shape imaginable, and when they looked up from eating, they began to swing on their tails, ceremoniously bowing in all directions and waving their front flippers, like a fat man in a restaurant calling the waiter.”.

The last sea cow (Steller's, after the name of the discoverer, Georg Steller) was destroyed in 1768, not so distant in the past, when the Bering Sea was still called the Beaver Sea.

Particularly surprising is the fact that these animals were discovered in icy waters, although, as is known, their only relatives completely limited their habitats to warm tropical seas.

The northern sea cow is a relative of the manatee and dugong. But compared to them, she was a real giant and weighed about three and a half tons.
Well, since we are not destined to see Steller's cow in the foreseeable future (an illusory hope for cloning), and dugongs live mostly off the coast of Australia, then we are left with manatees, or Manatee, as they are commonly called in America.

While on a short vacation on the west coast of Florida, we just couldn't pass up the chance to try and see the manatees. And the season was right: winter and spring are the best times. Animals are extremely thermophilic, and cold weather gather in heaps in the coastal warm Florida waters.

“It wasn’t easy for Kotik: the herd of Sea Cows swam only forty to fifty miles a day, stopped at night to feed and stayed close to the shore all the time. The cat did his best - he swam around them, swam above them, swam under them, but he could not stir them up. As they moved north, they stopped more and more often for their silent meetings, and Kotik almost bit off his mustache out of frustration, but noticed in time that they were not swimming at random, but sticking to warm current- and here for the first time he became imbued with a certain respect for them.”.

Manatees are also often attracted to thermal power plants that release warm water. Having become accustomed to this constant source of unnatural heat, the manatees stopped migrating.

And since no new fossil fuel power plants should be commissioned in the world after 2017, and old ones often become “targets” for radical climate activists, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to find another way to heat water for manatees.

Manatees are staunch vegetarians. Thanks to their very heavy skeleton, they easily sink to the bottom, where they feed on algae and herbs, eating huge amounts of them.

The flippers have flat nail-like hooves, reminiscent of an elephant's. One of the unique features that manatees share with elephants is permanent shift molars, which is generally uncharacteristic of mammals. New plate teeth appear further down the jaw and gradually displace old and worn teeth forward (“marching molars”).

The manatee has six cervical vertebrae, not seven. Which is unique for the class of mammals, where the neck is usually formed by seven vertebrae, no matter whether it is a mouse or a giraffe. There are only two exceptions - the three-toed sloth with nine cervical vertebrae and the manatee with six.

“But the Sea Cows were silent for one simple reason: they are speechless. They have only six cervical vertebrae, instead of the required seven, and experienced sea inhabitants claim that this is why they are not able to talk even to each other. But in their front flippers, as you already know, there is an extra joint, and thanks to its mobility, Sea Cows can exchange signs that are somewhat reminiscent of a telegraph code.”

Our Florida base was on Longboat Key, on the southern tip of which was the South Lido Mangrove Park, a famous habitat for sea cows (yes, manatees are still called that, although this is not entirely correct). At one of the offices at the entrance to the park, we rented two kayaks, received a good detailed laminated (!) map of the mangrove tunnels, and went to look for cows.

The waterway passed through mangroves. Mangroves are evergreen deciduous plants that have settled on tropical and subtropical coasts, and have adapted to life in conditions of constant ebb and flow (up to 10-15 times a month). They are rather large in height, several human heights, and have bizarre types of roots: stilted (raising the tree above the water) and respiratory (pneumatophores), protruding from the soil and absorbing oxygen.

How fun it was to walk through the mangrove tunnels, almost touching your heads on the tightly intertwined tree arches. Black mangrove crabs, the size of half a finger, rolled down from the roots in whole scatterings as we approached. But it was hardly worth looking for sea cows here, so we soon went out into open water bay.

The warning sign “Manatee zone: slow speed” indicated that there should be sea cows right here. Manatees often get hit by the propellers of boats and motor boats, and get entangled in fishing nets and hooks, so with the help of such signs they at least somehow try to protect the animals from injury.

But there were no cows. Neither here nor further. Somewhat disappointed, we completed the kayak route, disembarked, finished with all our business, and were about to leave when the manati swam straight to the shore. Not one, not two, but four - two females with cubs.

Typically, a female manatee gives birth to one baby every 3-5 years, very rarely twins. Pregnancy lasts about 9 months. The peak birth rate occurs in April-May. Childbirth takes place under water. A newly born manatee is about 1 meter long and weighs 20-30 kg. Immediately after birth, the mother lifts the baby on her back to the surface of the water so that it takes its first breath. For about another 45 minutes, the baby usually remains lying on the mother’s back, gradually regaining consciousness, and then they are immersed in the water again.

The mother feeds the baby milk for a long time, although after three weeks he can eat algae. Instead, they will spend about two years, and then the manatee will go free swimming.

We stood at the very shore, and one of the mothers swam almost close. Studies have shown that manatees have poor vision. But they have sensitive hearing, and, judging by the large olfactory lobes of the brain, a good sense of smell. The manatee funnyly flared the nostrils on its face, and even seemed to grunt. Or snorted. I don’t know what we did to deserve such attention from them, but after making a few circles, the mothers and babies decorously swam towards the big water.

Well, the topic of manatees could be closed and checked: seen in wildlife. But we decided that for a complete picture it would be nice to look at sea cows in more detail. And the easiest way to do this is in a laboratory aquarium that specializes in the study of manatees. Mote Marine lab is located in the city of Sarasota, on the opposite end of the same island.

The number of manatees found in Florida waters is approximately 6,250. Manatees are a "native" species to the United States, as proven by fossil evidence. Depending on the time of year, they can often be found in Florida, Alabama and Georgia. In very rare cases, manatees can even swim as far north as they have been seen in Massachusetts.

Manatees can live for at least half a century. And the oldest representative of its species is officially considered to be a manatee named Snooty (“Snooty” - “arrogant”). He spent all of his 68 years in the Florida city of Bradenton, where he was taken to the aquarium at the age of 11 months in 1949. The official title of the oldest manatee is recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. In the wild, sea cows usually do not live to be 10 years old.

The Mote Lab's aquarium is home to two manatee brothers: Hugh and Buffett. Their favorite pastime is chewing. Each brother crushes about 80 heads of cabbage per day. Their characters are completely different. If Buffett stayed closer to the bottom, preferring the far corners so that he was not so clearly visible, then Hugh stuck his heel to the glass with all his might, and even seemed to laugh.

The high activity level is probably the reason why Hugh, who is three years older than Buffett, actually weighs 300 kg less! This liveliness of his, in addition to the presence of two small scars on his right shoulder (the results of two abscesses that were surgically removed), makes Hugh easily recognizable. He behaved like a playful, 500-kilogram kitten, which in no way corresponded to his respectable 30-year-old age.

Although all manatee species are endangered, knowledge of how these animals function in the wild is virtually non-existent. Hugh and Buffett are helping scientists learn more by participating in several research programs. Mothe's lab is trying to answer some of the most basic questions, including: How well can a manatee see? (It has already been proven that it is very bad). What is the function of facial whiskers called vibrissae? How much air does a manatee “swallow” when it comes to the surface? And finally, how can we help sick and injured manatees in the wild?

In addition to manatees, laboratories live in aquariums sea ​​turtles, sharks, jellyfish, and about a hundred (!) species of various living creatures. So it will be interesting for everyone who comes to visit the sea cows.

Location: Florida, USA.

Katerina Andreeva.
www.andreev.org