Manatee Quiz

Their placid grazing is similar to grass-chomping cows.

Like whales (and humans), manatees are warm-blooded mammals.

Adults max out at about 1,300 pounds and can measure about 13 feet long.

The species name is Trichechidae, which fall into the order Sirenia.

The Steller's sea cow was found all over the North Pacific and then hunted into extinction in the 1700s.

When they are actively swimming, manatees will breathe more often.

Many dugongs, a species of manatee, are found near Australia and other parts of the West Pacific.

They were easily the biggest manatee species and some of the largest creatures ever to roam Earth's oceans.

Even with ample layers of blubber, manatees require fairly warm waters for survival.

Manatees are herbivores, meaning they eat plant material for sustenance; once in a while they will munch on other sea creatures.

Also called the Amazonian manatee, these creatures cruise the waters of the Amazon basin and don't do saltwater at all.

That's faster than most people can run, but quite a bit slower than a Great White shark (25 mph).

A dugong's snout, like a vacuum, is turned down to suck up delicious plant matter from the ocean floor.

You see that tasty snack up on the shore? You really think that rotund manatee is going to let a little dry land keep it from a delicious treat?

Manatees aren't particularly social animals, so their aggregations don't often number more than six or so.

In addition to elephants, manatees are also related to furry little hyraxes, which look like chubby rodents.

Some manatees skew towards being more active at night, but in general they'll feed or travel at any hour.

For a 1,300-pound manatee, that means it would be gulping 130 pounds of food in just a day.

Their shallow habitat and need for air means they're often struck by boats, sometimes with fatal consequences.

Females carry their fetuses for about a year and the babies, of course, are born underwater.

Most mammals have seven but the manatee has just six.

For about an hour, the mother will nuzzle and encourage the baby to surface for air, after that they tend to figure it out for themselves.

These creatures have amazingly long lifespans of around 70 years.

They may not have external ear structures, but manatees have big inner ear structures that make for good hearing.

They are about 60 pounds, and they may be up to around 4 feet long.

They have also proven their ability to make complex associations; they are far smarter than they look.

Underwater animals are notoriously hard to count, but dugongs are relatively numerous, with populations totaling perhaps 80,000 worldwide.

Because manatees chomp and chew through so much vegetation, they've evolved to replace their molars through their lives.

Manatees love the warm waters generated by (and around) Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station. So many of them return every winter, the power company has built a viewing center open to the public.

Some experts think the population could dive by one-third in the next two decades because of collisions with watercraft and loss of habitat.