West African Manatee

The West African manatee lives in coastal areas, rivers, and creeks of western Africa. Find and label these areas on your map and color them yellow. It looks very similar to the West Indian manatee. Like the other species of manatees and dugongs, the West African manatee is extremely agile underwater. It enjoys doing somersaults, barrel rolls, head and tail stands, and upside-down gliding. Manatees and dugongs usually swim about three to nine feet below the surface of the water. They swim about two to six miles per hour which is about the same speed as a professional swimmer. However, to avoid danger a manatee or dugong can swim up to 16 miles per hour, as fast as most sail boats can move on a very windy day!