West Indian Manatees (Trichechus Manatus) in the Wider Caribbean Region

4 West Indian Manatees (Trichechus manatus) in the Wider Caribbean Region Caryn Self-Sullivan and Antonio A. Mignucci-Giannoni The Antillean or Caribbean subspecies (Trichechus ma- of the Lesser Antilles; and (3) northeastern South Amer- natus manatus) of the West Indian manatee is classified ica east of the Lesser Antilles. In this chapter we refer as endangered on the IUCN Red List because the current to all populations from the Bahamas to Brazil, exclud- population is thought to be fewer than 2,500 mature in- ing Florida, as WCR manatees. In an effort to highlight dividuals and is predicted to undergo a decline of more advances in each region, we have included text boxes by than 20% over the next two generations unless effective local scientists where research and conservation efforts conservation actions are taken1. Yet the West Indian have been expanded in recent years. manatee is possibly the best understood species within The WCR provides great diversity of habitat owing to the family Trichechidae. Since the late 1960s, research on geographical, environmental, social, cultural, economic, the most northern subspecies, the Florida manatee (T. and political variation. As a result conservation strate- m. latirostris), has grown exponentially, driven by state gies developed specifically for the Florida manatee may and federal agencies, universities, and nongovernmental not be generally applicable to WCR manatees. Based on organizations2. diversity within the region and the growing evidence In this chapter we address conservation of the re- that some individual manatees are wanderers, traveling maining West Indian manatees in the Wider Caribbean hundreds of kilometers5, WCR manatee conservation (WCR), including those populations within the Carib- strategies are most beneficial when they are both locally bean Sea, the western Gulf of Mexico and along the At- derived and regionally collaborative. lantic coasts of the Bahamas, the Greater and Lesser An- tilles, and the northern and northeastern coast of South Background America. The common names Antillean and Caribbean are somewhat misleading. Antillean refers to the Greater Had manatee meat not been an important source of food and Lesser Antillean Islands; Caribbean refers to the Ca- for Indigenous Americans, explorers, immigrants, and ribbean Sea, which borders Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, slaves, we would know very little about the species’ his- the Antilles, and Central and South America west of the torical range and status within the WCR. Archaeologists Antilles. But the habitat range of West Indian manatees have documented the importance of manatee meat to extends beyond both of these areas and includes the Ba- pre-Columbian inhabitants. Early explorers and natu- hamas, the Gulf coast of Mexico, the Caribbean coast ralists often wrote about the distribution, abundance, of Central and South America, the Greater Antilles, and use of manatees. Thanks to these writings we have a and the Atlantic coast of South America as far south as view into the past that enables us to estimate the histori- Brazil (map 4.1). Moreover, at least one manatee in the cal and prehistoric distribution and abundance of WCR Bahamas and one manatee in Cuba are emigrants from manatees6. the Florida population3. Manatees in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Brazil are classified as a genetically Historical Distribution distinct population from both Florida and Caribbean Archaeological evidence indicates that though mana- manatees4. These recent findings provide considerable tees were used by pre-Columbian inhabitants of the evidence that West Indian manatees in the WCR are ge- WCR7, manatee remains are rare in midden depos- netically distinct populations and should be managed as its, possibly because they were butchered at nearshore three biogeographic groups: (1) Bahamas, Florida, and shore or offshore sites with only the meat transported the Greater Antilles; (2) Central and South America west inland8. Given the rise in sea level since the end of the West Indian Manatees in the Wider Caribbean Region 37 UNITED STATES 60 Antillean Manatee Atlantic Gulf of Mexico Ocean Principal Habitat Range BAHAMAS Vagrant Sightings of Individuals Collaborators: CUB A TURKS AND Mexico - Benjamin Morales, Janneth Padilla CAICOS IS. Guatemala - Ester Quintana Belize - Nicole Auil MEXICO DOMINICAN Honduras - Daniel Gonzalez CAYMAN REPUBLIC Nicaragua - Ignacio Jiménez BELIZE ISLANDS Costa Rica - Ignacio Jiménez HAITI Panama - Lenin Riquelme, Yolanda Matamoros GUATEMALA JAMAICA Colombia - Dalila Caicedo Venezuela - Adda Manzanilla, Jaime Bolaños, Esmerarida Mujica HONDURAS PUERTO Trinidad - Alësha Naranjit RICO EL SALVADOR Caribbean Sea Suriname - Benoit de Thoisy French Guiana - Benoit de Thoisy NICARAGUA Brazil - Carolina Alvite, Regis Pinto Bahamas - James Reid Turks and Caicos - Brian Riggs ANTILLES Cuba - Jose Antonio Santos Dominican Republic - Enrique Pugibet, Monica Vega, Haydee Dominguez COSTA Puerto Rico - Antonio Mignucci RICA TRINIDAD & TOBAGO Virgin Islands - Antonio Mignucci PANAMA VENEZUELA Curacao - Adolphe Debrot Cayman Islands - Janice Blumenthal Pacific GUYANA Ocean COLOMBIA SURINAM Equator FRENCH GUIANA Atlantic Ocean EQUADOR Equator PERU BRAZIL N 500 miles 800 kilometers 60 BOLIVIA Map 4.1. Antillean manatee distribution. (Map by Ellen McElhinny.) Pleistocene, most of these sites may be underwater or Whitehead13 provides an extensive review of the records overgrown with mangrove forests9. Analysis of one bone documenting manatees as far south as 20°S latitude. As midden on Moho Caye, a small island near Belize City, recently as 1964 a ton of manatee meat was harvested in indicates that manatee was a primary food source for the Bahia, Brazil14, an area where manatees are locally ex- coastal Maya10. The midden contained remains of mana- tinct today15. For a more detailed review of the archaeo- tee, mollusk, fish, turtle, and deer. Eighty-nine percent of logical and historical records see Durand and see Lefeb- the estimated harvest was manatee, indicating that it was vre et al.16. the main source of meat for the Maya hunters and fishers who used Moho Caye during the Middle Classic Period Historical Research (circa 400–700 AC). The earliest scientific investigations of Antillean mana- Writings by early explorers and naturalists, along tees in the WCR were conducted in the Guianas17. After with historical trade documents, have led scientists to their first expedition there in 1962, Drs. Colin Bertram hypothesize a significant reduction in the number of and Kate Ricardo Bertram, a husband and wife team WCR manatees over the past 300 years. In 1492 Co- from the University of Cambridge, U.K., dedicated four lumbus reported “swarms” of manatees in Cuba and decades of their lives to sirenians, publishing more than also documented their presence in Hispaniola11. In 1520 20 papers and bringing the dire status of these previ- Oviedo described hunting techniques used by both na- ously unstudied aquatic mammals to light18. Ironically, tives and Spaniards12. In 1699 Dampier reported mana- very little is currently known about the population in tee abundance and exploitation throughout the WCR. the Guianas. 38 Section I: Regional Issues in Sirenian Conservation Early scientific expeditions rarely resulted in the di- veys, photo-ID, remote sensing and telemetry, rescue, rect observation of living manatees. Data were more of- health assessment, and necropsy programs. For example, ten limited to interviews with local inhabitants, counts since Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth, conservation and measurements of harvested animals, and descrip- of the manatee population falls under the jurisdiction of tions of manatee habitat. However, interviews with local U.S. federal agencies; as a result the manatee population people have proven to be an essential first step in de- has been studied extensively using the same tools and termining where manatee populations exist within the techniques as in Florida. WCR19. In Mexico and Belize, where funding is more likely to During the later twentieth century a contingent of come from nongovernmental organizations, advanced U.S. scientists followed up on interview results by work- techniques have enabled scientists to perform health as- ing with local stakeholders to determine distribution sessments on populations in Chetumal Bay, Northern and abundance of manatees in the WCR via aerial sur- and Southern Lagoon, the cayes near Belize City, and veys. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, aerial surveys had Placencia Lagoon35. Collaboration among scientists become a primary tool for counting manatees in remote working in the region has improved our ability to es- areas. Since that time aerial surveys have been conducted timate population numbers and identify populations at in Puerto Rico20, Jamaica21, the Dominican Republic22, risk and has enabled the detection of seasonal variance Haiti23, Cuba24, Mexico25, Belize26, Guatemala27, Hon- in distribution36. duras28, Nicaragua29, Costa Rica30, Panama31, and Ven- As with all sirenians, there has been an explosion of ezuela32. new information on WCR manatees over the past 10–15 Broad-scale countrywide aerial surveys have become years, including a better understanding of the impor- an important tool for predicting manatee presence and tance of habitat and breakthroughs in evolution and habitat use; however, aerial surveys have not proven genetics37. However, if we are to ensure the survival of useful until recently in determining actual population

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