Sarasota, Fla. – In 1902, a scientist examining the smooth, grapefruit-size brain of a manatee remarked that the organ’s unwrinkled surface resembled that of the brain of an idiot.
Ever since, manatees have generally been considered incapable of doing anything more complicated than chewing sea grass.
But Hugh, a manatee in a tank at a Florida marine laboratory, doesn’t seem like a dimwit.
When a buzzer sounds, the speed-bump-shaped mammal slowly flips his 1,300 pounds and aims a whiskered snout toward one of eight loudspeakers lowered into the water. Nosing the correct speaker earns him treats.
Hugh is no manatee prodigy. Such sensory experiments, along with other recent studies, are revealing that sea cows aren’t so stupid after all.
Researchers contend that if the plant-eating beasts seem slow-witted, it is because they faced no threats to their survival before the advent of boat propellers.
“They’re not under any selection pressure to evolve the rapid-type behavior we’ve associated with hawks, a predator, or antelopes, a prey,” said Roger Reep, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “They look like very contented animals that don’t have very much to do all day.”
The experiments underway at the independent Mote Marine Laboratory could help scientists protect Florida’s manatees, an endangered species, from propellers and other dangers.
The lab’s buzzer experiments are hearing tests in which the tones gradually grow shorter and softer. The researchers want to know: At what distance could Hugh hear a boat’s propeller churning in the water? Could Hugh determine where the sound is coming from?
Despite recent findings that suggest the animals hear well enough to avoid boats, researchers aren’t sure why manatees keep getting hit.
At least 75 manatees have been killed this year in collisions with watercraft, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
