New Research Suggests Manatees Might Be Relatively Recent Florida Residents
We know manatees to be important fixtures in Florida, but new research has suggested that they might be relatively recent arrivals to the Sunshine State.
For centuries, manatees may have swum in Florida waters occasionally before returning to their permanent homes in the Caribbean. It is possible that they did not become Florida residents until after Europeans colonized the area.
The manatee population in Tampa Bay was not considered to be plentiful until the 1950s. They were driven to Florida for the same reason they are at risk of extinction today—climate change.
Researchers were motivated to look into the history of manatees in Florida when they realized that there was a lack of evidence of large manatee populations in Florida during the pre-colonial era.
“Based on my own experience and talking to other archaeologists, we agreed there was a rarity of manatee bones on archaeological sites,” said Thomas Pluckhahn, a co-author of the study and an anthropologist at the University of South Florida who has been involved in archaeological excavations around Tampa Bay since 2008.
“It was particularly impressive to me because I’ve worked at Crystal River, which is an epicenter for manatees. We became more curious and decided to do a comprehensive review of archaeological and archival sources.”
The research team analyzed about 70 archaeological reports that described in detail the collection and examination of almost two million animal bones. None of them belonged to manatees.
They did end up finding a dozen other excavation reports of manatee bones that had been modified into tools or decorative ornaments. However, that was not enough to affirm that manatees had a large pre-colonial population in Florida.
The researchers think that manatees were not present at all in pre-colonial Florida. The tools and ornaments were likely brought to the area through trade between Native Americans and those from the Caribbean.
Austin – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
The lack of manatee bones at the excavation sites could also be because the sea mammals were not hunted. But they were not mentioned in accounts of explorers who arrived at Tampa Bay from 1528 to 1595.
So, the most logical explanation is that there were very few manatees from the Caribbean visiting Florida at that time. Later, they settled in Florida permanently.
The first written records of manatees in Florida date to the late 1700s, during the period of British rule.
Even then, sightings were rare. In the 1920s and 1930s, print media began reporting regular manatee sightings in Miami and St. Augustine.
By the mid-1950s, manatees were common in Tampa Bay. But why did they even move to Florida? Once upon a time, Florida’s waters were too cold for manatees due to the Little Ice Age, a period of on-and-off cooling that started in the 1200s and lasted through the 1800s.
As the effects of the Little Ice Age dwindled, manatees began expanding their range northward to Florida.
Human-induced climate change warmed up the waters, making them the ideal place for manatees to live and breed. Climate change is still impacting them today.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the current manatee population in the state is between 8,350 and 11,730. In 2017, they were classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
The study was published in PLOS One.
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