Movements and Spatial Use Patterns of Radio-tagged West Indian Manatees (Trichechus manatus) along the Atlantic Coast of Florida and Georgia: A Progress Report

Abstract

The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) is a large, herbivorous aquatic mammal that lives in shallow estuaries, rivers and coastal areas of the New World tropics and subtropics (Lefebvre et at. 1989). The Florida subspecies (T. m. latirostris) occurs at the northern end of the species' range. Their low metabolic rate makes them susceptible to cold stress in winter, hence limiting their northward distribution and affecting their behavior and movements (Irvine 1983). During the warm-season, manatees can be found throughout the coastal areas and freshwater river systems of Florida and Georgia, but in winter most manatees aggregate around warm-water sources, either natural springs or industrial effluents, in central and southern Florida (Hartman 1979). This document discusses various techniques and data sets resulting from aerial surveying and telemetry tracking studies. (94 page document