VM 40900 Lecture 2: Aquatic Wildlife Health Lecture 2 Notes
13 Jan 2018
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Florida manatee range: winter (around coast of florida), summer (westward or up the east coast, sometimes up the mississippi river) Monitoring: tag along peduncle, aerial counts in the winter (high count in 2014, population steadily increasing) Chessie the manatee found in chesapeake bay: made northward migration annually. Low threshold for cold temperatures (68 degrees fahrenheit or less= cold stress) Cold stress symptoms similar to frostbite in humans, more severe cases can lead to starvation and death. Herbivore: hind gut fermenters (like horses and rabbits) Most of digestion takes place in the cecum. Can take 7-8 days for digestion to occur, more nutrients are able to be extracted over longer transit time (most animals take 24-48 hours) Don"t have front teeth (instead have pads), have molars called marching molars that are continuously replaced (why they were able to outcompete the dugongs) Brain doesn"t have folds in it like in humans and porpoises.
