page_title: Manatee
section_title: Intelligence and learning
hierarchical_section_title: Manatee / Behavior / Intelligence and learning
caption_attribution_description: attitudes Manatee
context_page_description: Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species in the order Sirenia: the Amazonian manatee, the West Indian manatee, and the West African manatee. They measure up to 4.0 metres long, weigh as much as 590 kilograms, and have paddle-like flippers. The etymology of the name is unclear, with connections having been made to Latin manus, and to a word – sometimes cited as manati – used by the Taíno, a pre-Columbian people of the Caribbean, meaning "breast". Manatees' other name, sea cows, comes from the fact that they are slow plant-eaters, peaceful and similar to cows on land. They often graze on water plants in tropical seas.
context_section_description: Manatees are capable of understanding discrimination tasks and show signs of complex associative learning.  They also have good long-term memory. They demonstrate discrimination and task-learning abilities similar to dolphins and pinnipeds in acoustic and visual studies.
caption: Manatee postures in captivity
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