Manatee Health and Risk Assessment: Tools for the Future

Bonde - AWHI 2026

types of health assessments

• on-going field research projects

• FL, PR, Belize, MX, Brazil, AUS

• captive rehab and release

• monitoring and surveillance

• sentinel species concepts

manatees need to maintain a ____ position in the water column

horizontal

pachyostotic ribs are susceptible to

fractures

pachyostotic ribs offset positive buoyancy from

being hindgut fermenters

rostral deflection of sirenians tells you about

diet

dugongs do not have molar _____

progression

increased rostral deflection means the sirenians are increasingly

benthic feeders

rostral deflectoin are

• a derived character

• motivated by behavior

• fixed by natural selection

Sirenian rescue organizations

• USFWS

• FWC

• MRP

• Clearwater Marine Aquarium

what is involved in manatee stranding?

• rescue

• captive rehab

• captive release

• monitoring

why are sirenians susceptible to cold issues

no blubber

what is one way to mark manatees before captive release

freeze brand

how to monitor manatees

telemetry

radiotag

which life stage is better at recovering and being released

subadults and adults

what period of captivity is better at reconvering and being release

less time (<1y, 1-5y)

are captive or wildborn manatees better at reconvering and being released

wildborne

what is included in health assessment/monitoring

• morphometrics and BCS

• nutritional state (U/S, fecal)

• ID (photo, PIT tagging, genotyping)

• radiotagging and monitoring

• metabolism, thermoreg, heat loss

• THR monitoring - RAPTR

• clinical blood analyses

• contaminants

• immunology

• disease detection

• parasites & microorganisms

• epiphyte biota communities

• repro endocrine and fitness

• general physio and neuro

• genetics

what is an important manatee health assessment study

crystal river (2007-2018)

what does cow/calf pairs tell you

how well calves are being cared for

how do you catch a manatee

• boat-based

• shore-based

what to do in a health assessment (brief)

• measure

• record

• document

• collect samples

• preserve

what causes the disparity in male vs. female weigh/straigh length ratio?

females need more energy for pregnancy, and cannot use this energy for growht

is there an obesity scale like MBI for manatees

yes

normal heart rate in manatee

40-80bpm

normal resp rate in manatees

1/min

normal oral temp in manatees

30-35C

when do manatees have higher blubber

winter

when do manatees have higher growth hormones

summer

majority of fecal microbiota

Firmicutes (followed by Bacteroidetes)

types of telemetry

• VHF (radio)

• UHF (long-range)

• GPS

• Sonic

• TDR (time depth recorder)

• D-tag (acoustic detection)

• video

• temp/salinity

which is better for tracking: GPS or radio

GPS (gives you what channels they go through rather than only when they surface…. more info)