A Safe Home for Manatees

Only three months old, a baby manatee nuzzles under his 1200-pound mothers flipper for a drink of her rich milk. Soon they will migrate to find more food and a warm place to spend the winter. but, on the way, they will have to dodge speedboats, swim through locks, and endure polluted waters. These gentle giants have roamed tropical lagoons and rivers for almost fifty million years, yet today there are fewer than 3,000 Florida manatees. The reason? Their habitat is disappearing.

Priscilla Belz Jenkins and Martin Classen clearly explain what makes up a habitat and what is happening to the manatees as their habitat is destroyed.