Florida manatee
Trichechus manatus latirostris
Quiet plant-eaters that gather at warm Florida springs in winter. Watch calmly and leave them room to rest and breathe.
Endangered (IUCN, 2008) means it is at very high risk of extinction in the wild. This status is for the West Indian manatee subspecies. The whole species is Vulnerable.
Photos show the species, not always the places on this page.
Length
Usually about 2.7 to 3.0 m (9 to 10 ft); some grow over 4 m (13 ft)
Weight
Usually about 450 kg (1,000 lb); exceptional animals over 1,600 kg (3,500 lb)
Next to a person
About the length of a small car, and roughly the weight of several adults
What it eats
A plant-eater: mainly seagrasses and other sea and freshwater plants. It can graze for up to about 8 hours a day.
Around people
Calm, give space
How it lives
The Florida manatee is a slow-moving plant-eater of coasts and rivers. It eats mainly seagrasses and water plants, using its flippers to steer and to hold food. It cannot stay long in water colder than about 20°C (68°F), so in winter it needs warm-water refuges. A calf can stay with its mother for up to about 2 years.
Where it goes
In cold weather, manatees move to warm-water sites in peninsular Florida, such as natural springs and power-plant outfalls; more than 67 of these sites are known. Crystal River and Kings Bay are among the best-known winter gathering places. In summer some travel along the coast north to Georgia and the Carolinas and west to Louisiana and Texas, and a few have reached Massachusetts.
We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.
Populations
This is the Florida subspecies (T. m. latirostris); the Antillean manatee (T. m. manatus) is a different subspecies, and the dugong is a separate species. The IUCN lists the West Indian manatee species as Vulnerable and the Florida subspecies as Endangered. A 2021 to 2022 survey estimated about 8,350 to 11,730 Florida manatees. Between 2020 and 2022, 1,255 manatees died on Florida's Atlantic coast, mostly linked to seagrass loss.
Meet it respectfully
Give resting and feeding manatees space. Never chase, corner, touch, ride or feed them, never give them water, and never come between a mother and calf. Where in-water viewing is allowed, float quietly at the surface and let the manatee choose. Respect refuge and sanctuary closures, like the winter sanctuaries at Crystal River. Boat strikes are the main danger that manatees face from people.
Fun fact
Tap the bulb to light it up.
Its flippers help it steer and hold plants while it eats, and its paddle-shaped tail powers it through the water.
Its molar teeth slowly move forward and fall out, and new ones replace them, like a conveyor belt.
Pregnancy lasts about 13 months, and a newborn calf weighs about 27 to 32 kg (60 to 70 lb).
Florida manatee in the Ocean Atlas
Places we have researched where this animal is recorded. It is never guaranteed, and some places are for watching from the boat only.
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The Bahamas
United StatesSources for this page
- FWC, 2026
- USFWS
- IUCN Red List, 2024
- Deutsch et al., IUCN, 2008
- FWC, manatee viewing guidelines
- FWC, abundance estimate 2021 to 2022
- FWC, Atlantic coast unusual mortality event
- USFWS, Florida stock assessment, 2023
Facts checked 26 September 2026. Photos: Unsplash licence, or Creative Commons as shown on each photo.
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