7 curious facts about manatees (the gentle “sea cows”)
Manatees—often nicknamed “sea cows”—are among the few fully aquatic mammals outside cetaceans, along with their close cousins, the dugongs. Since their land-dwelling ancestors returned to the water roughly 50 million years ago, they’ve evolved a suite of traits for grazing, digesting, and livin...
Why Manatees Are Endangered
Manatees (order Sirenia) are large, gentle herbivores of tropical and subtropical coasts, estuaries, and—depending on the species—rivers and lakes. Often nicknamed “sea cows,” they are ecosystem engineers for seagrass meadows and river–estuary wetlands. Yet habitat loss, human disturbance, and...