Look out: It's manatee mating season; also some wild myths and facts
Chad GillisWatch out for massive piles of manatees at local beaches this summer as mating season for the sea cow has arrived.
These gentle herbivores get lost in love during the summer months, and they're practically oblivious to any nearby human activity when they're mating.
A dozen or more manatees will gather in the gentle summer surf, and they may stay in that location for a day or more.
Some marine mammals will beach themselves when they're sick, and some whales are known to follow the sick individual to the beach because their social ties are so strong.
But the manatees you might see piled up on local beaches this summer aren't sick or injured. Quite the opposite: they're creating the next generation of sea cows.
The gatherings consist mostly of several males chasing one female.
As manatees are protected by state and federal laws and are one of the most popular creatures in Florida, here are five facts about sea cows and their place in Florida lore.
Were manatees brought to Florida?
A common myth floating around the Sunshine State is that manatees are an invasive species that were brought here to eat and help control invasive plants.
That's completely false as manatees have been swimming in Florida waters for eons, according to Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.
Mote also mentions online the rumor that manatees were brought here to feed rail workers a century or so ago, and that they're called West Indian manatees because the come from the west part of the Indian Ocean.
How many are left in Florida?
Counting manatees is difficult as they spend much of their lives submerged in murky waters.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that there are 6,300 manatees in Florida and about 13,000 throughout its entire range, which includes much of the East Coast of the United States.
The Florida population has grown rapidly in the past 25 years, with the first estimate of manatees here tallying 1,267 sea cows in 1991.
They're also found in the southeastern U.S., eastern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panamá, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and in the Bahamas, according to FWS.
There is only one subspecies in the Sunshine State
Although three different manatees are found around the world ― the West Indian (found here), the African manatee and the Amazonian manatee ― only one subspecies is found here.
The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, according to FWS.
The Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) is the other subspecies, and it's found from the Caribbean south to Brazil in South America.
They're called sea cows because they eat grass
These gentle herbivores keep it simple when it comes to their diet, which consists of various types of sea grasses.
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And they have no natural predators here, so they're free to roam the coast and look for pockets of what's left of the state's coastal grass systems.
You can look, but don't touch
Manatees are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, among other laws. The basic premise is that it's illegal to do anything to a manatee that will change its behavior.
That could be anything from chasing one in your kayak to actually sitting on one for a photo opp.
And don't get into the group for any reason as it is against the law and potentially dangerous as manatees can grow up to 3,500 pounds.
Connect with this reporter: Chad Gillis on Facebook.