Peixe-Boi (Amazonian Manatee)

Peixe-Boi

Is the Amazonian Manatee a lady or an ox? Peixe-Boi can be translated as Ox Fish. Some refer to the Amazonian Manatee the Amazon Ox.

Others say that the manatee is the "Lady of the Waters". Some stories say that early explorers mistook the Manatee for a mermaid.

Whether an ox or a lady, the Amazonian Manatee is large, however of the three species of manatees - the West Indian manatee, found in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico; the West African manatee, now very rare but still found along the African West Coast between the Senegal River and the Kwanza River in Angola, the Amazonian manatee is the smallest of the three species.

Amazonian Manatees can be found in the fresh waters of the Amazon River Basin throughout Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Ecuador. They are also found in the Black Water Lakes of the Amazon Valley. The Amazonian Manatee cannot survive in salt water as its cousins do.

Although West Indian and West African manatees have much rougher skin than the Amazonian Manatee they all share the same gray color.

The belly of the Amazonian Manatee is white or pinkish.
Tiny hairs cover its body, and its face is tipped with coarse whiskery hairs.

The largest measured members of this species have reached from 26 feet to almost 33 feet in length.

An interesting fact of Amazonian Manatee is that it favors the aquatic vegetation floating along the top of the water. This makes it different from its cousins who find deeper water more to their liking.

Although it is thought the Amazonian Manatee mates throughout the year, most females give birth to one calf during the rainy season when the rivers begin flooding.

Regrettably there is little funding available to study the Amazonian Manatee in Brazil.

Some studies have been conducted in Ecuador, Columbia and Peru, but much more research is needed.

Jaguars and sharks hunt this species, but the major predator of the peixe-boi is man. Brazil banned the hunting of manatees in 1973.

Unfortunately the decline in the Amazonian manatee population is not just from hunting but also from man's attempts to control water flow, as well as pollution of the rivers and lakes. Regrettably, deaths by boat strikes are still common.

An easy going, gentile giant, seeing a manatee during a trip up an Amazonas river is always a treat.

More in the next edition.