Monday, January 19, 2009

Young manatee deaths set record in 2008

From Orlando Sentinel
David Fleshler | (South Florida) Sun Sentinel
January 19, 2009

A record number of baby manatees were found dead last year despite public and private efforts to restore a species that ranks with the panther and alligator as a symbol of wild Florida.

State wildlife officers recovered 101 infant manatee carcasses in 2008, up from 59 the previous year.

The young manatees died from a variety of natural causes -- although decomposition was too far advanced to tell what killed many of them -- and no one knows the reason for the sudden increase or whether it indicates a new threat to the species.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which tracks manatee deaths, says the high number may be a result of more manatee births or more success in finding carcasses.

But The Save the Manatee Club said it could be an indirect result of boat strikes, habitat loss and other threats that have shortened the endangered mammals' life spans, reducing the number of experienced mothers bearing calves.

Statewide, the calves' causes of death varied: 26 were stillborn, eight were orphaned or abandoned, five died from cold and the rest from various natural or undetermined causes, said Martine DeWitt, a scientist with the wildlife commission. The significance of the increase is unclear, she said.

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