A manatee cruises in a canal connecting the Mosquito Bay and Mosquito Lagoon in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Florida.
~ janson
No pics, theyere hanging in a big cenote that connects to the sea and provides a flush of cool fresh sea water into the shallow lagoon. You could see their snouts when they came up to breath and occasionlly a flip of the tail at the surface when thy descended again. turbulent water and regulated distance limited th observation, but thi was the first time we'd ever seen them, so it was very interesting.
Sirenia (commonly referred to as sea cows) is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. Four species are living, in two families and genera. These are the dugong (1 species) and manatees (3 species). Sirenia also includes Steller's sea cow, extinct since the 18th century, and a number of taxa known only from fossils. The order evolved during the Eocene, more than 50 million years...
