The Manatee by Sophie

You are on a boat in Florida. You are having a great time. All of a sudden, a 10 foot long grey creature is swimming alongside your boat. A cow nose pokes up above the water. This creature has a scar on its back. Don’t worry, it’s just a manatee. The scar on its back is from a motorboat. Don’t be scared. Manatees are very loving animals and that’s why they’re endangered. Manatees won’t hurt you. Will you hurt them?
Manatees have lots of names all over the world. Most people call then sea cows or manatees. Those are their two main names. In Portuguese, people call manatees “fish cows.” There are three types of manatees. Each type has its own scientific and common name. The West African manatee’s scientific name is trichechus senegalensis. The scientific name for the West Indian manatee is trechechus manatus, and the Amazonian manatee’s scientific name is trechechus ingunis. Now you know all of the manatee names. Which name will you call this beautiful creature?
Manatees are very odd-looking animals. They have cow noses with whiskers. They have round tails that they sometimes use as weapons. They have two front flippers that they use to swim upside down and backwards. These creatures almost always have a lot of scars on their backs and faces from motor boats, which is sad, but the scars make them look even weirder than they already do. Manatees can also get huge! The West Indian and West African manatees can grow to be ten feet long and weigh up to 1,200 pounds. The Amazonian manatees only grow to be nine feet long and weigh up to 1,056 pounds, but that’s still pretty big. Despite the manatees’ large size and massive weight, these mammals only move up to six miles per hour. Female manatees live to be between 5 and 9 years old. Male manatees live to be from 6 to 10 years old. Humans won’t see these enormous creatures every day.
Do you know the manatees’ most closely related species? One is the dugong, which looks like a manatee except it is lighter in color and has a split tail like a fishes’ tail. Another is the hyrax, which is a small rodent. Others include the elephant and the aardvark. Even though elephants and aardvarks don’t have flippers, scientists believe that those animals used to hunt in the water, and eventually some grew flippers and a tail, and turned into a manatee manatee.
When a female manatee is ready to have a baby, she swims in a zig-zag course with multiple male manatees following her. The male manatee that keeps up with the female the longest will mate with the female. When the baby is born, the male leaves. The male manatee will not return to take care of the baby manatee. When the baby manatee is born, it will stay with its mother until it is old enough to go out on its own. The baby may stay close to its mother its whole life.
Manatees are very picky about where they live. They have to live in water that is between 70 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. They also have to live in shallow water or else they will sink to the bottom and won’t be able to come up for air. Manatees are herbivores. They have to live where there are lots of sea grass to eat. Hydrilla, a type of sea grass, is a manatee’s favorite food, but they will eat any kind of sea grass. Some types of algae and hyacinths are other sea grasses that manatees eats. A manatee eats 10% of it’s body weight each day. They can live in fresh or salt water. Manatees have a lot of needs when it comes to their habitat
Manatees live all over the world. There are four kinds of sea cows. They all live in different places. The Florida manatee lives on the coast of Florida. The Antillean or Indian manatee lives on the northeastern coast of South America. The West African manatee lives on the coast of West Africa. Last but not least, the Amazonian manatee lives in the Amazon River in South America. A count on the coast of Florida suggests that at least 2,022 Florida Manatees still remain. Scientists estimate that several hundred West African and Amazonian Sea Cow remain in the world. Different kinds of manatees live in very different places.
Manatees are valued for a lot of things. They are valued for their skin ,which people make coats out of, their bones which people carve and use as weapons, and the oil from their skin, which people use to generate things. They are also killed for their flesh, which people use as food. The Stellers Sea Cow went extinct because it got over hunted. In South America, it is illegal to hunt or poach manatees. It should be illegal here too or else the manatee will go extinct.
 Sea cows have a lot of threats. Water pollution, loss of sea grasses, and some hunting are only a few of the reasons that manatees are endangered. The main reason that manatees are endangered is motorboats. Manatees live in shallow water, swim slowly, and every three to four minutes they have to come up for air. All of these are reasons that boat drivers hit them when they aren’t paying attention. It is very rare to find a manatee that doesn’t have a scar on it’s face or back from a motor boat. Another reason manatees are endangered is because of slow reproduction. They are pregnant for 12 months before giving birth.
The fate of the manatee is in our hands. Please don’t let them die out.
There are solutions for manatees not becoming extinct. Watch out for manatees when boating on the coast of Florida. Stop polluting the water by making more laws about polluting water and how many animals it’s hurting. Plant more sea grasses. Make more laws about restricting boats where manatees live and guidelines about water pollution. Please, do whatever you can to help these sweet creatures. They are counting on us.

How The Manatee Got Her Cow Nose by Sophie

Once there was a manatee. The manatee was very beautiful and she knew it. Every day she would brag and brag about how pretty she was. She would brag about something different. The thing that she bragged about most was her nose. Her nose was in the exact middle of her face, it had one very small piercing on one side of it, it was round and it was beautiful, according to the manatee. The manatee loved her nose and she wanted every one else to love it too. The manatee didn’t let anyone touch her nose except for her very best friends.
One day the chief fish called a meeting. At the meeting he said that he knew how upset every one was about the manatees bragging. He himself was sick of it. As soon as he said that everyone started yelling out ideas for how to stop the manatees bragging. The chief took charge and calmed everybody down. Then he said “before we try to hurt the manatee why don’t we ask her?” The other fish seemed to like this idea so that night the chief fish went to the manatees house and knocked on her door. The manatee was admiring her nose in the mirror when she herd a knock at the door. She opened it. It was the chief fish. “Manatee.” He said “I need to talk to you.” The manatee invited the chief fish inside to talk. The chief fish started to tell the manatee how upset everyone was but the manatee didn’t want to listen. She liked her nose and didn’t want to stop bragging about it. The chief fish left.
The next day the chief fish called another meeting about the manatee. Again every one started to yell out ideas. This time the chief fish took notes on what some of the fish said. That afternoon the manatee was out bragging about her nose as usual. When a big group of fish swam up to her and asked her if she wanted to go to a spa. The manatee said yes and swam off with the group of fish. The fish brought the manatee to a big field of sea grass. “Yum!” said the manatee. “But where are the spa fish?” “We are the spa fish” said a few of the fish that were in the big group.” Than the manatee got it. “This isn’t really a spa place!” She said. “You’re just trying to make me look ugly so that I’ll stop bragging!” With that she swam home.
For the third time the chief fish called a meeting. For the third time the fish started yelling out ideas. Again the chief fish started to write down some ideas. The next day the manatee was again bragging about her nose. All of a sudden a motor boat came whizzing by. The manatee sank to the bottom of where she was just in time to save herself from getting a scar. “You are so mean!” Said the manatee and she swam off towards her home. All of the fish gathered for another meeting all of them complaining. I have to do something about this. Thought the chief fish. Meanwhile the manatee was in bed fast asleep. She started to sleep swim and she swam right into the wall flattening her nose. “OWWWWWWWWW!” yelled the manatee. All of the other fish rushed over to see what had happened. “My nose! My nose!” The manatee was yelling. Her nose was flattened and looked just like a cow nose.
The next morning the manatee didn’t brag about her nose in fact she didn’t say much of anything. She was too embarrassed about her nose.
That’s how the manatee got its nose!!!

February 7, 2012
Dear Editor,

Sea cows are endangered so you should start thinking about the possibility of no more sea cows! The sea cow, or manatee, is in trouble and needs our help. If the manatee goes extinct, then it will affect the whole food web. One subspecies is already extinct, and we have to act soon.
The manatees population is very small and needs tremendous help. They have been endangered for a really long time and not many things have been done to help them. People like us have killed three-fourths of the sea cow’s population in the past three years by killing them for their skins and their bones. Most of the time we kill them accidentally. Now there are only around 3,000 manatees left in the whole world.
If the manatee dies out, then the the whole food web around them is in big trouble. The sea cow is an herbivore, and they only eat sea grasses. If the manatee dies out, then the sea grasses that they eat will become overgrown. If the sea grasses overpopulate, then they could invade and even destroy other animals’ habitats. It would also make it extremely hard to go boating because it wouldn’t be easy to get through the sea grasses.
One subspecies of the manatee is already extinct. The subspecies was called the Stellers sea cow. It was the first type of manatee that was discovered. It’s bad enough that humans killed a whole species of sea cows. Now scientists expect that all manatees are going to be extinct by 2020.
You can save the manatee. You can stop water pollution by explaining to people how bad it is for the manatee and other animals. You can pay attention when you’re boating on the coast of Florida, the coast of West Africa, the Amazon river, and the coast of South America, where manatees live. Please try to save the sea cow.
The manatee is endangered and it’s our fault. We have been killing them carelessly and making coats out of their skin. If we keep killing the manatee, then a lot of other animals will die. It will be our fault when the sea grasses overpopulate and endanger other animals and destroy their habitats. The Stellers sea cow is gone because of us. Don’t let the other manatees die because we kill them carelessly. The manatee’s fate is in our hands, please don’t let them die out!

Yours Truly,
Sophie
a Sea Cow lover
from Leverett Elementary School