The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is native to Florida and the Indian River Lagoon. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) is located in Indian River Lagoon and is frequently visited by manatees. The Manatee Project was created in 2009 to document and photograph the manatees visiting HBOI. Analyzing photographs of 146 manatee that visited HBOI showed that a majority of the injuries sustained were caused by boats. 97% of the manatee had at least one propeller injury and 31% of the manatee had at least one skeg injury. Other non-boat related injuries seen in the images included cold stress and entanglement injuries. This study looked at the prevalence of scar by anatomical region, the cause of injury, and compared injury locations between male and female manatees. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Florida manatees are semisocial marine mammals that vocalize when interacting with conspecifics and to maintain contact with offspring. While many aspects of their biology have been studied, there is a dearth of information on the diversity and complexity of vocal behavior during social, nonsocial, and stressful situations. Investigations of vocal communication repertoires which define, categorize, and correlate varied call types with behavior are needed in order to understand the behavioral and social function of associated calls. Arguably the most important social bond in manatees is the period of cow/calf dependency and empirical evidence indicates cows recognize the vocalizations of offspring. Exploration of individually distinctive vocal features can provide insight on which parameters might be salient to facilitate recognition between cows/calves. This study is focused on vocal communication in Florida manatees, how calls are structured, utilized and function while animals are distressed and during social interactions in their shallow water habitats. Hydrophones recorded vocalizations from individual calves and manatees in different behavioral contexts and varying size aggregations. Analysis of the vocal repertoire indicated manatee vocalizations can be parsed into five broadly defined call types which include the hill-shaped high squeak, tonal squeak, noisy squeal, two toned chirp, and the combinatorial squeak-squeal. Furthermore, the high squeak is likely a discrete call whereas the others are graded and do not have strict boundaries between call types (Chapter 2). Broadly defined call types were used to explore call usage with variations in behavior, group size, and group composition (Chapter 3). Manatees vocalized using few call types and altered structural parameters depending on behavioral state. Calls were longer and more frequency modulated when stressed. Vocalizations produced while cavorting were higher in entropy and more frequency modulated than when manatees were resting or feeding. Vocalizations obtained from individual calves suggest that the high squeak is a stereotypical call that is produced by smaller calves. All calves had individually distinctive acoustic features that could potentially be used in recognition (Chapter 4). Lower fundamental frequencies and higher emphasized frequencies from smaller calves suggest that the fundamental frequency may not be a reliable indicator of body size in calves. This research increases our knowledge of the vocal behavior and call characteristics of the Florida manatee. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection