Weekly Online Lesson Online Lesson Archive Grade Level: 3-6 Subject: Social Studies/Multidisciplinary

Living with Manatees

With winter in full swing, most animals are handling the cold weather conditions as they do every year and as their species has for hundreds of years. Some animals hibernate and some migrate to warmer regions, while others are well-adapted to the cold and live with the snow and ice through the entire season.

But in some cases, human activities change an animal's natural behavior or lifestyle. Usually, people don't mean to hurt the animals in their environment, but nevertheless, what humans consider a typical lifestyle — using electricity, having fun outdoors, and so on. — can harm the wildlife natives, sometimes even killing them.

One animal on the brink of extinction largely due to human activity is the manatee, often called the ocean's "gentle giant." Four species of manatee exist in the world, but the Florida manatee is perhaps the most threatened by human activities due to the large number of people living along Florida's coastline.

For this week's online lesson, you will explore how manatees live, die, and can be protected in the shadows of humans.

The risks

Manatees most often become newsworthy subjects when their lives are threatened. Start this week's lesson by reading an example from CNN published Thursday, January 4, Crew removes manatees at risk of freezing. The story explains how the warm water from a power plant apparently kept the manatees from leaving a potentially life-threatening climate and migrating to warmer waters to the south. Why do you think the rescuers care enough about the manatees to save them from freezing? How were other people in the community and government involved in this issue and why?

Last June, CNN reported another kind of risk to manatee survival in the article, Florida cracks down on speed boaters in manatee country. Read how human recreation is affecting manatee survival and how people are reacting. How did the government respond? How did residents in the community feel and why?

The issues

What are manatees? Visit the Best of Manatee Cam (7 slides) at Discovery Channel Online to get close-up views of some at the Columbus Zoo. Read about the manatee's Physical Characteristics at Sea World's site. This page shows the details of what manatees look like.

Next, learn more about the Habitat and Distribution of manatees at Sea World's site. Examine the map to find Florida, and then look at where the other manatee species are located. In Florida, how does manatee habitat compare with the area's human populations? Would you predict that the other species have similar conflicts with humans where they live? Why or why not?

Find out at Sea World's Conservation page what people are doing through legal protection and other efforts to keep the Florida manatee from going extinct. From what you've learned, do you think conservation efforts are helping? Why or why not? Do you think the government and the general public should do anything more or less for manatee survival? Explain your view.

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