VISITING THE AMAZONIAN MANATEE ON THE HIGHWAY.

On March 24 I went to visit the Institute for Investigation of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP). It is located on the highway to Nauta near the airport of Iquitos. It is a place where you can learn about the Amazonian manatee. I took my friend Jon Hamel from Canada to visit this wonderful place full of vegetation, trees, and lots of birds. It was not too hot because the previous night it was raining, so there were a lot of mosquitoes. Inside, we met Darwin, a volunteer guide who told us about the exotic manatees, and endangered species.

The Amazonian manatee is endangered because people capture and kill them for their oil and meat. My friend Jon got to feed the manatee water lettuce (aquatic plant), and a type of milk made especially for them. The people working in the center are volunteers, biologists, and students from universities who go there to learn more about these creatures. We were given the following information: Of the all the manatee species in the world, the Amazonian manatee is the smallest, they suck milk from under the armpits of their mothers. The Amazonian manatee drinks milk for the first 2 years of its life, and after 1-2 months they also start to eat aquatic plants. Female manatees will give birth to just one calf after a gestation period of 12-13 months. There is a waiting period of 4-5 years before they can have another calf. The Amazonian manatee can grow to almost 3 meters long, and weighs about 450 kilograms. They can reach the age of about 50-60 years. Evolutionarily speaking, manatees are considered to be related to elephants.

The Amazonian manatee is very important because it is a herbivorous aquatic mammal; it has been estimated that manatees consume between 8-10% of their body weight in vegetation every day. Due to these characteristics, the Amazonian manatee is considered a biological controller of aquatic weeds. If the manatees are exterminated, aquatic weeds could grow without control very rapidly, causing a reduction in overall water capacity, obstruction of hydraulic dams and pump stations, and impede boat navigation. In addition, the weeds would block sunlight from reaching life below the water, reducing photosynthesis and oxygen production.

This would cause an aquatic ecosystem unbalance. For these reasons, the Amazonian manatee is very important and this center (IIAP) is a good place to visit and learn more about them while you´re traveling thought Iquitos Thanks.