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Manatee: should you touch them in the wild?

You’ve probably seen the “do not touch” signs for manatees and wondered why this would be the case after hearing about places like Crystal Springs, Florida, where people go swimming with manatees. I have also heard the stories: manatees turn their backs to get their bellies scratched. People say how much manatees seem to like it.

So what is the problem? If you like it, why not touch manatees in the wild?

Before I explain why in detail, let me go to the bottom first and say that if you touch them, you put them at greater risk of injury or death. It also puts the entire species at risk of disappearing forever.

As manatees interact with people, they lose their natural fear of people. They also lose their natural fear of things associated with people that could harm them, such as boats. That is, if you take the “wild” out of a wild creature, it loses one of its best defense mechanisms: the instinct to avoid certain situations and flee when necessary. For the protection of a manatee, it is very important that it remain wild and retain its natural wild instinct.

Manatee are an endangered species. This means that there are so few left in the world that they barely hang by a thread. In fact, not only is its population low, it is also declining by at least 20% every generation! Losing a single manatee to death caused by a mindless premature human is REALLY important right now. It is essential that we do everything we can to protect them. Otherwise, we could lose this amazing creature forever in the next 100 years. It’s sad to think that your great-grandchildren could live in a world where there are no manatees in the wild.

Another important issue to consider is that manatees only reproduce every 3-5 years. The female remains pregnant for more than a year and the manatee pups stay with their mother for about 2 years. This means that manatees have a slow-growing population under the best of circumstances. They cannot be replaced quickly like other mammals such as rodents and rabbits that reproduce much more frequently. If you take out a single manatee, it can have a huge impact on the population right now.

Boating accidents are one of the main ways manatees are killed and seriously injured today, and boat traffic continues to increase throughout their range. Manatee can stay underwater for 15 to 20 minutes. However, like all other marine mammals, they have to surface to breathe. If there is a boat in the area when they do so, they can be hit by the hull or cut by the propeller. To make matters worse, manatees are nearsighted creatures – they see better up close than far. If a ship travels fast, they might not even see it coming before it’s too late. Manatee that have become accustomed to people are more likely to associate the sound of a boat engine with people and will be more inclined to move to areas where there is a lot of boat traffic. The number of manatee-related boat accidents has skyrocketed over the past decade.

Another problem with manatees being too comfortable around people is that not all people are friendly and it only takes one bad apple to kill or injure a manatee. If manatees get used to people scratching their bellies, they can expect ALL humans to be so nice. Unfortunately, we know that not all human beings are so friendly. In fact, there are some who would actually get some kind of sadistic pleasure from harming a manatee. It is much safer for the manatee if it does not lose its instinct to avoid people.

It is especially important not to touch or even interact with a manatee mother when she is with her cub. It takes two years for the mother to teach her cub everything she needs to know to survive on her own. Interacting with the mother and / or cub at this critical stage can result in the two of you becoming separated. If this happens, the puppy may not be ready to fend for himself and could very well die, not to mention the negative effect it will have on the helpless mother.

Most people who are forced to touch a manatee are like this because they love animals. They want to touch it because they are drawn to such a fascinating and wonderfully strange creature. They mean that the manatee will not harm you. They just don’t realize that touching the manatee could actually harm it or put it at higher risk of dying. It is mainly for those people for whom I am writing this article.

Please understand that for the manatee’s sake, the best way to observe it is to keep a respectable distance. There is also a HUGE advantage to looking at them this way, a huge advantage that you may not have realized before. When you observe a wild animal from a respectable distance, you can see how the animal behaves naturally! As fun as it is to touch a manatee, it’s even more fun to watch what it does in the wild. If you date an ethical eco-tour operator, they can show you how to see animals from a relatively close distance but without disturbing them. This may be one of the most memorable experiences you will ever have.

So if you see a manatee while swimming or snorkeling, try to keep a respectable distance and observe how it behaves naturally. The less you interact with him, the more acclimatized he will be around you and the more natural he will behave. You will more than reward yourself for showing this respect to the animal, I assure you! If you are with a group, make sure you don’t completely surround the manatee, even at a distance, as this will make them feel trapped.

If you are driving a boat and you see a manatee, be sure to slow down to avoid any chance of a collision. If you’re on a guided hike and someone else is driving the boat, if they don’t slow down, warn the manatee and politely ask them to slow down. Sometimes when manatees surface for air, most of their body remains underwater with only their snout sticking out. In these cases, they can be difficult to see and may not have been seen by the boat driver. This way, even if you’re not driving the boat, it can really help if you keep your eyes peeled to see them.

Remember that manatees are a true treasure in this world that could disappear if we are not extremely careful about how we behave around them. Please pass this information on to anyone you know who cares about manatees and other endangered wildlife. You can help save them just by getting the correct information.

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