My name is Romeo; I’m a Manatee from the Antilles rescued by the authorities and by the Dolphin Discovery Rescue Team. Since then I have lived in Puerto Aventuras and I am a proud father of 5 Manatees, thanks to the Miracle breeding program. This fills me with joy because it guarantees our survival as we are a threatened species and we need protection.
I have become an ambassador for the Ocean and my main mission is to teach our guests the importance of caring for my species and protecting the mangroves, as they are vital to providing us with oxygen.
Learn more about us:
According to the indigenous Caribbean language Manatee means “with mammal glands”, our scientific name derives from the Latin Trichechus that refers to the tiny hairs all around our body and Manatus that refers to the characteristic that we possess to breastfeed our calves and we are the only herbivores Marine Mammals.
We swim very slow in shallow and warm waters, our skin color is grey and it almost 6 cm. thick, its texture is similar to smooth sandpaper.
Even though we are larger than 3 meters hight and weight more than 500 kilograms, we only eat aquatic plants that are floating or submerged, just like the littoral plants. Our diet depends on our habitat, in those stands different types of plants, like, algae, mangrove leaves, turtle grass, water hyacinth, and seagrasses.