FINAL
Manatee Migration Update: May 5, 2004
Today's
Report Includes:
- Special Thanks to the Manatee Scientists!
- Final Field Notes from Susan Butler
- Latest Migration Maps and Data
- What Have We Learned from the TTI Tracking Study?
- So Long for Now
- You're the Scientist & Extension: Comparing Two Seasons of Migrations
- Ranger Wayne's Farewell and Season Summary
- Try This! The Match Game: Can You Make a Match?
- Try This! Pop Up Quiz: True or False
- Because They Are Endangered
- What if Manatees Had a TV Show
- What Can You Do to Help?
- Ready for Summer Vacation?
- Sharing the Planet: 200,000 More People Every Day
- Year-end Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts!
Special Thanks to the Scientists!
As our manatee migration season comes to a close, please join us in sending a HEARTFELT thank you to our dedicated scientists. In addition to their already busy jobs, each found extra time to share their research and knowledge with us. Journey North would not be possible without the dedication of scientists like these.
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Thank you Susan Butler, Jim Reid, Bob Bonde, and Cathy Beck The Sirenia Project; Ranger Wayne Hartley Blue Spring State Park; Holly Edwards FMRI; Nancy Sadusky Save the Manatee Club. |
- It's
Nice to Say Thanks
If you'd like to send your thanks to the scientists, they'd love to hear from you! Send your notes to: our feedback form We'll forward them to the scientists.
Final Field Notes from Susan Butler
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| Latest
All Manatees Migration Map |
Hi Students:
When you are busy with your summer vacation, we will still be busy with
our manatee tracking research. In fact, we'll have even more to do, because
Jim Reid and I just captured and tagged four more adult manatees at POI,
for a total of ten manatees "online". These latest captures
were kind of a last effort to increase the number of tagged manatees for
our TTI study, since this will be our last year of that study (see below).
Some manatees are now carrying GPS transmitters, which can generate many more location coordinates than PTT transmitters do. Want to see the difference? Just take a look at the maps of Belvedere's GPS track this season in our summary of the TTI study below. You'll see the number and detail of locations mapped. Can you see how GPS gives us a very detailed picture of Belvedere's habitat use and how he traveled from place to place?
Since
our last update, this season's tracked manatees have pretty much stayed
put, with no real surprise movements. Take one last look at their locations
in the final tracking data and maps from today's report:
Link
to Latest Data and Maps:
(Courtesy
of U.S. Geological Survey's Sirenia Project)
- Data & Individual Map for Actual
- Data & Individual Map for Anna
- Data & Individual Map for Leslie
- Data & Individual Map for Belvedere
- Data & Individual Map for Giffer
- Data Only for All Manatees--Printer-friendly Format
What Have We Learned from the TTI Tracking Study?
After four seasons of radio-tracking manatees in the Ten Thousand Islands region, this research study is in its final season. What do the data tell us? Why are they important? And how will they be used? To find out, take a look at our TTI Summary.
So Long for Now
It is hard to believe that our time with you has come to an end. Every year the season seems to go by quicker and before we know it, it is time to say goodbye! We have had a wonderful time working with all of you and we are continually amazed by your knowledge and understanding of manatees (we know this by your answers to those Challenge Questions!). We hope that you will continue to learn about manatees and their habitat and help us in our conservation efforts.
Susan
Butler |
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You're the Scientist: Comparing Two Seasons of Migrations
One of this year's Manatees - Actual - was already tracked by Journey North students during the last two years. This gives you a rare opportunity to compare a manatee's movements over several seasons. It's also a chance to try and create your own hypotheses, then test them and learn whether you were right, or if you now have even more questions.
Follow the trail and the timing of Actual's migrations over several seasons. Ask yourself these questions: Did she generally stay in one area? Or migrate widely? Make big movements? Or make small movements? Did she visit any place more than once? Use the Lesson below to guide your inquiry.
Extension:
Comparing Spring Migrations
After your students have finished comparing migrations over several seasons,
have them write a scientific paper about their hypotheses:
Ranger Wayne's Farewell and Season Summary
Hi Kids!
It's been great to have you studying the manatees at Blue Spring again
this year. I hope you have learned a lot and enjoyed yourself too.
Take a look at my full season summary below. It's always amazing what the weather and temperatures do to the manatees!
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Three
season records were broken at Blue Spring this year. Do you know which ones? Link to Ranger's 2004 Season Summary |
If you get a chance next fall or winter, come for a visit.
Have a great summer!
Ranger
Wayne Hartley
Blue Spring State Park
Try This! The Match Game: Can You Make a Match?
This season we've looked closely at Manatees and seen some very unique abilities from head to peduncle! Could you do some of the things Manatees do everyday?
- Stay under water for 15 minutes?
- Get new teeth constantly?
- Exchange almost all the air in your lungs in just one breath?
- Adjust your body fat to the surrounding temperature?
- Eat 10% - 15% of your body weight in food each day?
A Manatee easily does all these things and more, thanks to special adaptations. But you would need some help to do the same things! Imagine yourself doing the things that Manatees do.
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Try This! Pop Up Quiz: True or False
Think back on all that you've learned about manatees, and try to answer these "true or false" questions:
- Pop
Quiz
Then discuss your answers in a group, and find out why you answered the way you did, and what really is the correct answer. Are there any answers that you can't agree on? Why?
Because They Are Endangered
As we wrap up this season, we must never forget that the Manatee is an endangered species, and we are lucky that it still exists on our planet. This is especially true when you remember that in some years the toxic algae blooms known as red tide can wipe as many as a hundred manatees. Learn More:
| How can something so small, "bloom" into something so big? | |
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What is Red Tide? |
What if Manatees Had a TV Show?
If a single thing was causing 25% of all human deaths, we'd be pretty worried about that and action would be taken. Similar responses have happened for other animal species like dolphins or primates. Why not for manatees? (Afterall, since 2001 a single cause, powerboats, has annually caused between 19% to 31% of all deaths.) Is it because they've never had a TV show? Do manatees really need more protection? Learn more:
| What if Manatees had gotten their own TV show, like Flipper? | |
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What Can You Do to Help?
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"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Mahatma Gandhi |
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| What You Can Do | |
Each of us can take an active role in trying to save the manatees, no matter if we are students, or teachers or parents.
Ready for Summer Vacation?
As you finish up school and get ready for summer, ask yourself how is a human vacation different from an animal migration? For example, have YOU ever traveled without a suitcase? When people go on a trip, a lot of planning and preparation takes place. How about a manatee? Compare and contrast the purpose of travel, the preparations required, and the consequences of any mistakes. You're sure to appreciate an animal's remarkable journey even more after comparing their abilities to our own.
Sharing the Planet: 200,000 More People Every Day
As we end another manatee season, consider what human resource use and population growth mean to all living things. How fast are humans being added to the planet? Listen carefully:
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Every time you hear a beat, it means there's another person on the planet. (This is not the birth rate, but the "net gain," which means births minus deaths.) If you were to count the beats for 24 hours, 200,000 more people would have been added to the planet.
Year-End Evaluation: Please Share Your Thoughts!
Please take a few minutes to share your suggestions and comments in our Year-End Evaluation Form below.
In the coming year, Journey North will be fundraising to secure increased support from foundations, corporations and individuals. Your supportive comments will be a tremendous help. Thank you!
Journey North
Year End Evaluation
Please share your thoughts
This is the FINAL Manatee Migration Update. Have a Great Summer. See You Next Year.
Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form
