[size=12pt]Manatee seen near Cotton Bayou in danger of death[/size]
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2011, 7:58 AM
By Ben Raines, Press-Register
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A manatee showing the telltale signs of cold stress and starvation, including discolored skin and a peanut-shaped head, was seen near Cotton Bayou in the last few days. The animal will likely die if it doesn't complete its migration to central Florida. (Mobile Manatees Sighting Network).
ORANGE BEACH, Alabama -- It was the peanut-shaped head that alarmed the biologists.
In the world of manatees, a head shaped like a peanut is a bad sign indeed. It signifies starvation and imminent death.
Photos taken a few days ago by a waterfront resident near Cotton Bayou in Orange Beach showed a manatee with the distinctive trait. That manatee should have migrated to central Florida more than a month ago, said Ruth Carmichael, a biologist with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
While the manatee is no longer in the canal where it was photographed, Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Mobile Manatees Sighting Network is on the lookout for it, ready to perform a rescue if necessary.
“When the animals lose weight, just like with people, you start to see their bone structure. With manatees, you start to see a neck; the head takes on a sort of peanut shape,” Carmichael said.
With the sudden drop in water temperatures during the last few weeks, Carmichael said, any manatees seen in the area are in danger. Manatees, warm-blooded mammals, cannot survive for long once water temperatures fall below about 68 degrees. The water temperature around Dauphin Island on Wednesday was 62 degrees.
Dozens of manatees migrate to Mobile Bay from Florida each year. But they’re at risk of succumbing to cool temperatures unless they begin heading back to Florida by Halloween, Carmichael said.
Last winter, four manatee carcasses washed ashore in Alabama, marking the deadliest year on record for state waters. All four manatees showed signs of cold stress.
“Right now this is the only one we are actively concerned about. We had a couple of sightings, one in Pascagoula a couple of weeks ago, and one in the southern part of Mobile Bay, but, it was still warm,” Carmichael said. “This animal, given its location, and that it was not moving but was just hanging out in the canal, that was concerning.”
The water temperature was 66 degrees in the canal, but just 59 at the mouth of the canal where it leads into Perdido Bay, according to Carmichael.
She said, “What can happen is the animal can start to leave, then encounter the colder water at the mouth of the canal and make the wrong decision, deciding, ‘Oh, I should stay.’”
Given that the manatee hasn’t been seen in a few days, Carmichael held out hope that it had headed to Florida.
“It had distinctive markings on its back, so if a carcass washes up, we’ll be able to tell if it was this animal. That’s really the only way we’ll know if it survived,” Carmichael said.
Any manatee encounters should be reported to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab’s Mobile Manatees Sighting Network. People in Alabama and Mississippi can report sightings, sign up to receive the network newsletter or make a donation by calling 866-493-5803, emailing
manatee@disl.org or visiting
http://manatee.disl.org.
