Ever chatted with a manatee? Dr. Beth Brady has, and wants to tell you about it
Mote Marine Laboratory’s March Coffee With A Scientist, held Tuesday, March 21, at the Boca Grande Community Center, brought visions of the fictitious Dr. John Doolittle to some people’s minds. The presentation never mentioned the doctor who could talk to the animals, but Dr. Beth Brady, Mote manatee vocalization specialist, did explain how she has been listening to these interesting animals, hoping to understand their needs better. She has been doing research on manatees for 13 years.
Dr. Brady said she has identified five different types of vocalizations Florida manatees make, but has come to recognize that they normally only use three of them. These noises tend to be made in relation to eating, playing and stressful situations.
She said the most vocal animals usually are those that congregate in large groups, have serious predators to deal with and need to search or hunt for food. Florida manatees have low levels of all three of these factors, so they are not especially noisy.
Florida manatees do come together in groups, but these are often short-term meetings, not established groups. There are some noises associated with such meetings, but they are not especially sophisticated. They may help one another in searching for food, but for the most part, manatees do not need this type of communication.
The one group that has a marked vocalization or communication system appears to be manatee mothers and their “calfs.” There are noises associated with manatee communication between males and females, as well.
Dr. Brady has studied the various species of manatees around the world, doing research in Mexico and in Africa. An interesting finding is that the noises all manatees make are very similar, but have slight changes, similar to our noticing accents in humans who come from different parts of the world or even parts of the country.
What exactly makes these differences includes body structure and size, environmental differences and other factors that still need more study. Even with these differences, however, various species of manatees appear able to communicate with one another. This indicates they are using the same basic “language.”
Dr. Brady noted that when looking at the manatee brain, there is a much larger segment devoted to auditory sensations than to sight. This would indicate that hearing is more essential for a manatee’s wellbeing than its ability to see. They also use the hairs and whiskers on various parts of their bodies to help them know where to go and how to protect themselves.
There are still many things the scientists do not know about manatees. One thing that Dr. Brady is continuing to study is the effect music has on the aquatic mammals. Dr. Brady said they will be playing various types of music for their study subjects to see if that could be an enhancement for them or a source of stress.
Another study is looking at the effect tour boats have on manatees. There are many boats that take sightseers out to view manatees. Whether this is a stress on the creatures or not is an important consideration for those who care about protecting the manatees. Dr. Brady said she hopes her ongoing studies will be able to use the acoustics of the manatees to determine how they are doing with feeding, nursing, mating and other areas of a stress-free life.
