Winter Movements and Use of Warm-water Refugia by Radio-tagged West Indian Manatees Along the Atlantic Coast of the United States
The West Indian manatee's metabolic physiology constrains it to subtropical and tropicalregions. In waters of the United States, a manatee's ability to find reliable warm-water refugiaduring winter cold periods is critical to its survival. This report documents how radio-taggedmanatees used a network of 14 industrial and 3 "natural" warm-water sites along the east coastof Florida and Georgia duringwinter. Most industrial sites were powerplant discharges but alsoincluded pulp mill effluents. TheU. S. Geological Survey's SireniaProject tracked 71 manateesover 12 winter seasons (1986-1998) using field-based VHF radio-telemetry and Argos satellite based telemetry.Thirty-seven individuals weretracked over periodsofat least 100daysbetween November and March of a given winter, manyfor multiple years. Presence at a warmwaterrefugewasdefinedas a location occurring within 200m (for a VHF field observation) orwithin 1 km (for a satellite-determined location) ofthe site. (133 page document)
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| Format: | monograph biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit , University of Florida
2000
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| Subjects: | Biology, Limnology, Information Management, West Indian Manatee, Trichechus manatus, Florida, tracking, water temperature, movements, |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1834/18949 |
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| Summary: | The West Indian manatee's metabolic physiology constrains it to subtropical and tropicalregions. In waters of the United States, a manatee's ability to find reliable warm-water refugiaduring winter cold periods is critical to its survival. This report documents how radio-taggedmanatees used a network of 14 industrial and 3 "natural" warm-water sites along the east coastof Florida and Georgia duringwinter. Most industrial sites were powerplant discharges but alsoincluded pulp mill effluents. TheU. S. Geological Survey's SireniaProject tracked 71 manateesover 12 winter seasons (1986-1998) using field-based VHF radio-telemetry and Argos satellite based telemetry.Thirty-seven individuals weretracked over periodsofat least 100daysbetween November and March of a given winter, manyfor multiple years. Presence at a warmwaterrefugewasdefinedas a location occurring within 200m (for a VHF field observation) orwithin 1 km (for a satellite-determined location) ofthe site. (133 page document) |
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