Manatees are gentle giants that live in warm coastal waters and rivers around the world. If you’ve ever seen these slow-moving sea cows in person, you know how cute and intriguing they are! Manatees give birth to tiny calves that often stay close to their mothers for up to two years.
If you’re wondering what baby manatees are called, you’ve come to the right place.
In short, a baby manatee is called a calf. Manatee calves weigh an average of 66 pounds at birth and depend on their mothers for food and protection.
Basic Facts About Manatee Calves
Newborn Appearance and Size
When newborn manatees first enter the world, they generally weigh between 60-70 pounds and are around 3-4 feet long. Their bodies lack the barrel shape and thick layer of fat that adult manatees possess. Instead, calves appear streamlined in the water with clearly defined neck and tail regions.
Their skin shows wrinkles and often has a reddish tint from being folded in the mother’s womb.
Manatee calves are born with a thin layer of fine hair called lanugo covering their bodies, though they lose this within the first few months of life. They initially have small flippers relative to their overall size.
Newborns have soft, flexible earflaps and nostrils perfect for nuzzling close to mom.
Nursing and Weaning
After giving birth, a mother manatee will help guide her hours-old calf to the surface for its very first breath. Calves typically nurse underwater every 20-30 minutes in the first few months. As documented at savethemanatee.org, manatee milk has 10% protein and 10-15% fat content, giving calves a high level of nutrition to fuel rapid growth.
Manatee calves continue to nurse for a year or longer. They will additionally start experimenting with plants around 2-3 months old as they learn to forage independently. By their second year, calves predominantly feed on vegetation like their mothers.
Mother-Calf Bonds
The bond between a mother manatee and her calf is very strong. They communicate with various squeaks, grunts, and whines while calves stick close to their mothers. Manatees have good memories and excellent recognition skills.
As a result, if a mother and calf get separated, they can sometimes reunite years later according to data from myfwc.com.
However, due to threats from boats and loss of seagrass foraging habitats, not all calves survive to adulthood. The manatee mortality rate is around 5-10% annually for calves under a year old according to wildlife organizations.
Creating more protected areas for mother-calf pairs to safely bond in their early months could aid conservation efforts.
The First Weeks of a Manatee Calf’s Life
Taking Their First Breath
When a baby manatee, called a calf, is born, one of the most critical moments is when it takes its very first breath. Within the first hour after birth, the calf will need to make its way to the surface of the water to take in that vital first gulp of air.
This allows its lungs to inflate and it can then breathe air regularly like an adult manatee.
A newborn calf typically weighs between 60-70 pounds and is around 4 feet long. Supporting something of that size taking its first swim and breath is crucial. The mother helps guide the calf to the surface, helping it lift its head out of the water for the first time. She uses her flippers and nose to nudge the calf along as it builds up those initial swimming skills.
Swimming and Bonding With Mom
In the first weeks of a calf’s life it stays very close by its mother’s side. Swimming alongside mom, it is learning her daily routes to grazing areas, resting spots and places she knows as safe havens.
A calf will spend most of its first two years with its mother, bonding through nursing, playing, resting and traveling together. This ensures the vulnerable little calf learns all the survival skills it will need when it eventually goes off on its own.
During this initial period the calf improves at swimming, playing and holding its breath underwater for longer. But it will still regularly return to mom’s back to rest after expending all that energy!
Nursing and Resting Often
According to the Save the Manatee organization, “newborn calves nurse underwater for up to 15 minutes every 2-3 hours.”
This frequent nursing helps the calf to grow at a rapid pace even in its first few weeks of life. The rich manatee milk enables calves to quickly pack on weight, strengthening their bodies.
| Newborn | 1 Year Later | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 1 metre / 3 feet | Over 2 metres / 7 feet |
| Weight | 30-35 kg / 60-70 lb | Over 150 kg / 330 lb |
You can see after just 1 year they more than double in size! All that nursing clearly does the trick.
Between play sessions and nursing intervals, calves will take a lot of naps during these early weeks. They’ll cozy up to mom’s back or belly to rest. Eventually learning to even sleep underwater alongside her for short periods.
Manatee Calf Development and Growth
Weaning Off Mother’s Milk
Manatee calves drink their mother’s rich milk for the first two years of their lives. This milk aids in rapid growth, allowing calves to gain over 10 pounds a day. At around one year old, calves begin the process of weaning by starting to nibble on sea grass and other aquatic vegetation.
By two years old, most calves are fully weaned and eating only solid foods.
The weaning process is important for manatee calf development as it allows them to transition from their mother’s high-fat milk to the vegetation that sustains adult manatees. Grazing on aquatic plants provides manatee calves with necessary nutrients and prepares their digestive system for their adult diet.
Learning to Graze on Plants
As manatee calves wean off their mother’s milk, they begin learning to graze on aquatic plants from watching their mothers and other adult manatees. Mothers will often lead their calves to good feeding areas with nutritious vegetation.
Some favorite foods manatee calves learn to eat are:
- Seagrasses like turtle grass, manatee grass, and shoal grass
- Mangrove leaves from red, black, and white mangroves
- Water lettuce
- Hydrilla
- Water celery
With adult manatees eating up to 100-150 pounds of vegetation per day, manatee calves must learn which nutrient-rich plants help them meet their high caloric needs for development and growth.
Socializing With Other Manatees
As manatee calves grow, they begin interacting more with other manatees besides their mothers. Young calves start communicating with each other by squealing, chirping, and producing other sounds. They may engage in gentle playfighting or “cavorting” together, which strengthens social bonds.
Older calves spend more time grazing alongside groups of juvenile and adult manatees. Large congregations of manatees gathered together to feed or rest are essential for young calves to get accustomed to manatee social structure.
These early interactions facilitate future mating and reproduction once the calves reach adulthood after 3-4 years.
Through weaning, feeding, communicating, playing, and congregating with other manatees, calves successfully transition from nursing youngsters to fully independent juvenile manatees.
Threats to Young Manatees
Boat Strikes
Baby manatees, or calves, face great danger from boat strikes in Florida’s busy waterways. Their small size makes them difficult for boaters to spot and avoid. Propeller injuries are the leading cause of death for the endangered Florida manatee, accounting for over 20% of total deaths.
Manatee calves often suffer horrible propeller lacerations that slice into their backs and tails when they are struck.
According to statistics from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, over 130 manatees were killed by watercraft strikes in 2021 alone. Baby manatees are especially susceptible during their first two years of life as they navigate crowded aquatic highways alongside their mothers.
Conservation groups urge boaters to be vigilant, obey speed limits, and watch out for the snouts of manatee calves breaking the surface.
Habitat Loss
The rapid loss of natural warm water refuges poses a major threat to the survival of newborn and juvenile manatees in Florida. Manatees rely on warm water sites like freshwater springs and power plant outflows to take shelter, especially vital during winter months.
As coastal development encroaches on these habitats, the availability of warm water refuges declines.
Development near the shoreline and increased demand for waterfront property destroys crucial seagrass foraging grounds used by mother manatees and their calves. Dredging, pollution, and algal blooms also contribute to the demise of over 60% of seagrass beds in certain areas of Florida since 2009, as per a FWC report.
Without healthy seagrasses, manatees struggle to find adequate food supplies to nourish growing baby manatees.
Cold Stress
Baby manatees are especially susceptible to dying from cold stress syndrome during extreme winter weather in Florida. Their tiny bodies lack thick layers of insulating fat built up by mature manatees. Prolonged exposure to water temperatures below 68 °F can be fatal.
During the winter months, hundreds of Florida manatees suffer from cold stress. They exhibit symptoms like shivering, lethargy, and confusion. If cold-stunned manatees do not receive intervention, they can die from shock.
Rescue organizations and FWC monitors intervene to help transported distressed manatees to rehabilitation centers. However, the lack of warm water refuges remains an obstacle for their survival in the wild.
Efforts to Protect Baby Manatees
Speed Zones and Wildlife Sanctuaries
To protect mother and baby manatees, wildlife sanctuaries and manatee protection zones with strict boating speed limits have been established. These safe havens give the vulnerable calves places to feed, rest, and bond with their mothers without the threat of boat strikes. For example, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has implemented numerous manatee protection zones with maximum speed limits of 25 mph or even idle speed zones during manatee season.
Rescue and Rehabilitation
If a baby manatee is injured or orphaned, wildlife rescuers leap into action. Organizations like the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have specialized manatee rescue teams. Between 2016-2020, they rescued 111 calves, providing medical care and sometimes pairing orphaned babies with surrogate mothers.
| Year | Baby Manatees Rescued |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 15 |
| 2017 | 22 |
| 2018 | 26 |
| 2019 | 25 |
| 2020 | 23 |
Facilities like the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership (visitmanateelagoon.com) provide top-notch care so rescued calves can eventually be released back into the wild.
Public Awareness Campaigns
Conservation groups spread awareness to boaters and beachgoers about how to safeguard mother and baby manatees. Campaigns share tips like:
- Wearing polarized sunglasses to better spot manatees
- Obeying speed limits in manatee zones
- Not disturbing or separating mothers and calves
- Disposing of fishing lines properly to avoid entanglement
These public outreach efforts encourage people to give baby manatees plenty of room, watch wakes and props, and simply let them be to ensure future generations can thrive.
Conclusion
Manatee calves have an uphill battle to survive into adulthood. Their first two years are crucial as they develop from tiny newborns into juvenile manatees. Understanding the name, growth patterns, and threats faced by baby manatees can help us better protect these amazing creatures.
The next time you see a manatee mom swimming with her calf, remember that they need protected habitats and slow boat speeds to thrive. With more awareness and conservation efforts, future generations can continue to be awed by these gentle giants and their young.
