While the population of wild Florida manatees has rebounded in recent years thanks to legal protection and boater-education efforts humans still pose a grave threat to this wrinkled creature. Thirty-two manatees are believed to have been killed by motorboats through March of this year, a pace expected to surpass last year s total of 82 killed, the highest number recorded to date. Only a total of 2,400 Florida manatees survive in the wild. A half-ton heavy, the manatee has no natural enemies. This slow-moving animal lives in shallow waters and has to surface every four minutes on average to breathe, making it especially vulnerable to speeding boats.
Habitat loss causes even more damage than motor boats.
Construction of marinas and other obtrusive structures have consumed much of the shoreline along which manatees feed, sleep, and breed. Florida manatees migrate as far west as Louisiana along the Gulf Coast, and as far north as Virginia along the Atlantic. The continuing development of the coastal Southeast thus spells bad news for these creatures that inspired crewmen on Christopher Columbus American voyages to bring home tales of mermaids. A dozen new species of monkeys, five new birds, a new deer, and a new peccary have recently been described in Brazil. The area, near the Rio Madeira, may foster species diversity because rivers there have split the ecosystem into isolated zones.