However, she is a survivor.
Kali’na was one of a pair of twins; her sister was even smaller, and unfortunately much weaker.
Like other marine mammals, manatees live underwater but breathe air. Manatees give birth underwater, after which the mother helps guide the infant to the surface for its first breaths, but the calves must swim on their own very quickly.
Twin births are rare for manatees. Considering how much care the newborns need in that first hour, it is easy to see why.
Kali’na joins a school of six manatees already living at Beauval Zoo.
Peaceful and Curious
An adult manatee can grow to be 10 feet long and weigh between 900 and 1,200 pounds. These herbivorous giants swim very slowly—3 mph, as a rule, though they can briefly sprint at three times that speed. Sea cows, like terrestrial bovines, basically ambling around grazing all day.Manatees do not have any natural predators, so they are not fearful; in fact, they tend to be curious, on occasion making their way up to swimmers and boaters to investigate the land-based visitors.
The biggest threat facing these aquatic giants are boats and ships. Many manatees are covered with scars from encounters with propellers; the big beasts, floating just below the surface, are impossible for boaters to see and they are too slow to escape the peril.
Stricter enforcement of manatee-zone speed limits and campaigns to increase public awareness have had some success over the past 25 years, and manatees have started to increase their numbers.