Riviera Maya, Biodiversity: The Manatee. The Mermaid of Caribbean. Holiday Cancun

Riviera Maya, Biodiversity: The Manatee. The Mermaid of Caribbean.

The Mermaid of Caribbean.

The manatee is an aquatic mammal that lives in rivers, lakes and coastal tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic and African American coast, with water temperatures no lower than 20 ° C. Four species worldwide ( order Sirenia ) : the West Indian manatee ( Trichechus manatus ) , which lives from the peninsula of Florida, (USA) , Mexico , Central America , West Indies to Brazil , the Amazonian manatee (T. inunguis ) , who lives in the Amazon river in South America, the African manatee ( T. senegalensis ) on the west coast of Africa , and the dugong (Dugong dugong ) , the coasts of the Indian Ocean and Australia .

In Mexico manatees are found in rivers , lakes and coasts of the states of Veracruz , Tabasco , Chiapas , Campeche , Yucatan and Quintana Roo , but only in a few areas are common. In Quintana Roo are found along the coast, but mainly live in : a) the coves and cenotes between Playa del Carmen and Tulum , b ) bays and the Ascension of the Holy Spirit , located in the reserve

The manatee is the world's largest aquatic herbivore, their presence enriches the exchange of nutrients in lakes and coastal environments .
Its population in Quinta Roo is estimated between 200 and 250.


The manatee is the world's largest aquatic herbivore.

Manatees and Mayas .

For the Maya , the manatee was part of their culture and diet like many other natural resources, is well documented and regular home use of manatees by the Mayans in the sixteenth century. After the Spanish conquest, hunting was more intense in different regions of Mexico and Yucatan coasts .

It is not known with certainty as Maya praises appointed the manatees and is a glyph or symbol that can be unambiguously assigned to them though in the temple of the cross, Palenque archaeological site , there is a figure that probably represents a manatee . And also the Mayan word teek could be one of the names used by the Maya to recognize manatees.

Myths and realities.

It is said that Christopher Columbus saw sirens us first trip to America even wrote that the January 9, 1493 observed three sirens jutting from the sea and even they were not as beautiful as they said or had long hair .

Threat and conservation.

Among the most serious direct threats to manatees include: modification of habitat disturbance and little supervision , the reduced capacity of the State to manage these natural resources and adequately conserve their marine protected areas, the lack of a continuing program of environmental education and the human activities and the misuse of natural resources.
for example in the Bay of Chetumal, there are records of manatee deaths from human causes such as entanglement in nets, boat wounds , gunshot wounds and injuries nylon fishing thread