A West Indian manatee is an aquatic mammal that lives in salt, brackish and freshwater environments in equatorial Atlantic waters. Specifically, manatees are found in west Africa, the Amazon river basin in South America, and throughout the Caribbean basin in South, Central, and North America, and including the Caribbean islands.
Manatees are herbivores and subsist entirely on vegetation.
About 5 to 10 minutes if they are resting. One manatee was clocked at holding her breath for just over 20 minutes. When manatees are active or swimming, they generally come to the surface every minute or so. Only when they are stranded by the tide. They do not have a skeletal structure adequate for support on the land, so they wait for the tide to come back in and float themselves free.