Sea cows belong to the Animal Kingdom group called "Sirenia". In ancient Greek mythology, it was the "Sirens" who sang so melodically from their island that sailors would be entranced, lured closer, and crash their boats against the rocks. The story goes that Orpheus saved all aboard the Argo by playing his lyre so beautifully the tune drowned out theSirens' voices. (Read of Jason, the Argonauts, and the search for the Golden Fleece!)

History credits Columbus with naming the sea cows "mermaids" when he encountered them on his trips to the Caribbean. Perhaps our sirenians are so peaceful and appealing that we are enchanted, too.

In their history on earth--which is longer than human history--great herds of the animals were common. They eat sea grasses and plants, so sirenians are found where the plants grow--along the coasts. This puts all sirenians on a collision course with any population explosion that changes the coastlines, pollutes the water quality, and fills once-quiet waters with fast powerboats.

In many countries manatees and dugongs are still hunted for food. In the United States, they are protected by law from the hunter and people who share the waterways with them. Nevertheless, around the world Sirenian numbers are declining. There are still many unanswered questions about them. Study and observation are slowly changing old views of these interesting and intelligent "cows of the sea".

•ORDER: SIRENIA has two families--the dugongs and the manatees. Proper classification uses the Latin forms.

•FAMILY are •Family: Dugongidae, and •Family: Trichechidae.
(That's a real mouthful, isn't it?)

•GENUS & SPECIES

•••In the Family: Dugongidae, there were two genera and species, the tropical dugongs and the cold-tolerant Steller's sea cows.

•Dugongs (Dugong dugon) live in the warm waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They are slightly smaller than their Atlantic cousins and have a notched, or fluked tail. Dugongs show no nails on their flippers and have smooth skin.

•The huge Steller's sea cows (Hydrodamalis gigas) lived in the Bering Strait. They had dark and heavily textured skin, and carried more blubber than their tropical relatives. They were killed for food by fur-hunting parties; without any thought to their conservation, they were extinct in just 27 years.

(This happened in 1768, so while we were just colonies and struggling for independence from Britain, the Steller's sea cows were lost to the world forever.)

•••The Family: Trichechidae has three tropical Species: the West African Manatee, the Amazonian Manatee, and the ones we see off our coasts in America, the West Indian Manatee. Currently all of these animals are endangered as their numbers decline and human populations increase.

•The West African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis) is similar in size and appearance to the West Indian manatee. Scientists are studying these manatees of Africa's coasts and adjacent inland waterways, but these are the least well-known of the Sirenians.

•Kept separate by geology, the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis) has smooth skin, no nails on the flippers, and is slightly smaller than the West Indian and West African manatees.

•The Caribbean area is home to the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus). Many island nations and the south and east coasts of America are home to these manatees. Scientists have identified two subspecies here. (Subspecies are similar animals that evolved differently from one another, usually due to living in separate territories.)

•SUBSPECIES

As Florida is separated from the rest of the Caribbean by deep water where their food won't grow, the Florida manatees are somewhat isolated. Scientists have discovered slight differences in biology, so their full name is •"Trichechus manatus latirostris" (Florida manatee). The other Caribbean manatees are called •"Trichechus manatus manatus" (Antillean manatee).