The endangered West Indian manatee is a large, plant-eating, slow moving mammal found in the southeastern United States, Caribbean Islands, eastern Mexico and Central America, and the northern coast and rivers of South America.

Florida’s state marine mammal gets a check-up each year by a team of biologists, veterinarians and experienced volunteers who conduct health assessments of the manatees captured at Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge in the late fall and winter.

Crystal River is one of several sites where USGS has successfully captured, examined and released more than 400 manatees over the past 10 years. The researchers choose sites that manatees frequent during the cold winter months – typically areas near springs or other sources of warmer water where large numbers of manatees congregate — making it easier for biologists to assess many animals in a short period of time.

Why examine manatees?

Health assessments are a valuable tool to determine the fitness, specifically related to environmental and medical issues, of any population of wildlife. Biologists also use information from the assessments to understand the basics of manatee health in order to ensure that rescued and captive animals are properly cared for.  Marine mammals, such as manatees, are often used as sentinels for emerging threats to the ocean environment and human health.

Manatees are an endangered species, so all clinical procedures are con­ducted by experienced biologists and veterinary personnel. A special wildlife research permit is required. Since manatees, unlike people, do not voluntarily get physicals, a large team works together to capture and examine the manatees. In the water, manatees selected for capture are circled with a large net and pulled onto the beach by an experienced capture team.

The Physical Exam

Once on shore, the manatees will receive a complete medi­cal examination by veterinarians on the assessment team. Blood is drawn under sterile conditions from a flipper, centrifuged for plasma and serum separation, and submitted for routine blood analyses to assess health condition and establish baseline normal values for the manatee population.

Female manatee nursing calf

A manatee physical exam includes the following:

• General Appearance

• Body Condition

• Photo-documentation of any lesions and wounds

• Heart/Pulse Rate

• Respiratory Rate

• Temperature

• Body weight

• Complete body measurements (body length and girths)

• Eye exam

• Implantation of PIT tag (used to identify individual manatees, just like microchips in pets)

• Subcutaneous fat layer exam (conducted with an ultrasound)

• Analysis of blood, feces, urine and skin

• Reproductive parameters (tell scientists if it is male, female, pregnant)

Two manatees cavorting with others resting in the background.

About Manatees

Manatees are entirely aquatic, and as herbivores eat a wide variety of aquatic plants, including seagrass, water hyacinths and shoreline vegetation.

Ranging in color from gray to brown, the average adult manatee is about 10 feet long and weighs between 1,500 and 2,200 pounds. Newborn manatees range in size from four to four and a half feet long and weigh about 60 pounds. Manatee life expectancy is about 60 years.

Manatees cannot survive for extended periods in water colder than about 63°F, and prefer temperatures warmer than 72°F.

Manatees live in shallow fresh, brackish and marine aquatic habitats, traveling readily among them. In Florida, they travel considerable distances during the winter to access warm water habitat, such as artesian springs and the heated discharges of power generating plants. Some individuals also travel long distances during the warm season, going as far north as Rhode Island on the Atlantic coast or even to Texas along the Gulf of Mexico.

Manatees are federally listed as an endangered species that needs protection. Major threats to their survival are human activities: boat-related injuries and deaths, entanglement in fishing gear and discarded line, habitat loss or degradation, and in some countries, hunting.

Did you know?  Manatee ancestors evolved from four-footed land mammals more than 60 million years ago, and manatees are distantly related to elephants and hyraxes; the latter are small mammals native to Asia and Africa.

Video

Team Manatee: A Community Working Together

http://gallery.usgs.gov/videos/629

Barred owls like this one were most strongly associated with patches of large hardwood and conifer trees in relatively flat areas along streams.

Invasive barred owls in the central Coast Range of western Oregon appear to be outcompeting the federally threatened northern spotted owl for critical resources such as space, habitat and food, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey’s David Wiens. The study confirms that barred owls not only use similar forest types and prey species as spotted owls, but also that a high density of barred owls can reduce the amount of those resources available to spotted owls.

The northern spotted owl was designated as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. In recent years, however, the larger and more aggressive barred owl has expanded its range from eastern into western North America, where its geographic range now overlaps the entire range of the northern spotted owl.

Now, barred owls have become more common than spotted owls in the forests of western Oregon, according to Wiens, who received his Ph.D. at Oregon State University for this work. The three-year study was the result of a research partnership led by the USGS that included OSU, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Oregon Department of Forestry, and Boise State University.

Wiens’ study identified at least 82 pairs of barred owls but only 15 pairs of spotted owls. The barred owls had a 92 percent probability of surviving from one year to the next, compared to 81 percent for spotted owls. Furthermore, barred owls produced more than six times as many owlets as did the spotted owls over the study period.

Both species frequently used patches of old conifer forest or stands of hardwood trees along streams while hunting for food and roosting, and both species survived better when there were greater amounts of old conifer forest within their territories. But while barred owls are selecting older forest habitat, as shown in Weins’ study, they thrive in other habitats as well. In contrast, spotted owls are almost entirely dependent on older forests.

Weins said his study by itself doesn’t assess whether barred owls are making it difficult for the spotted owl to recover. He cautioned that he did not examine cause-and-effect relationships. Furthermore, the study area was limited and encompassed a highly fragmented landscape, conditions found in some but not all portions of the spotted owl’s range. However, the study does support the conclusion that barred owls are probably having a significant impact on spotted owls.

“Despite two decades of dedicated management efforts, northern spotted owl populations have continued to decline throughout much of their range,” said Eric Forsman, a U.S. Forest Service researcher who also participated in the study. “This study suggests that conservation of old forest habitat is still a critical need for spotted owls, so we will continue to work with our research and management partners to collect information and explore options for management.”

The full report, “Competitive Interactions and Resource Partitioning between Northern Spotted Owls and Barred Owls in Western Oregon,” is available as an Oregon State University doctoral dissertation.

Caretakers painstakingly feed, nurture, and teach the daily tasks of survival to whooping cranes all while hiding their true identity behind baggy costumes. The team members never use human voices, exercise and take the cranes for walks and swims, and use puppets to deliver food to the baby whooping cranes they care for — all so that they can be released to the wild.

Whooping crane chicks have definite personalities. Chick L10 was shy but blossomed into a rascal, and Chick L8 had an early tendency toward being a bit of a bully, but eventually learned to get along with his peers.

Whooping crane Chick L8 was hatched on June 4, 2010. When he was about a month old, he became a “meanie” toward other chicks and could not be walked with any other cranes. He had to live and exercise by himself for a long time and was the last bird to be socialized with the rest of his cohorts. But it turns out that Chick L8 was just a late bloomer, and he eventually learned to live peaceably with others. Chick L8 has a sister, who was also released in Louisiana.

Both of these gangly, adolescent whooping cranes were shot and killed in Louisiana on Monday, October 10, 2011, and though two alleged shooters have been identified, the world of whooping crane scientists, managers, caretakers, volunteers, and birders is in mourning — once again.

Tragically, these are the sixth and seventh shooting deaths of reintroduced endangered U.S. whooping cranes in 2011.

Here, at the USGS’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, in Laurel, Maryland, where we raised Chicks L8 and L10 until their release in Louisiana last winter, we find these killings personally and scientifically heartbreaking and ethically unacceptable.

These cranes — including each of those senselessly killed by people — represent an investment of hope for whooping cranes to wing their way back to a more certain future. And with only about 430 whooping cranes now in the wild, each bird counts.

At Patuxent, we have been raising whooping crane chicks for 45 years; the species had reached a low of about 16 adult birds by the late 1930s and was in grave danger of extinction, as they still are today. Whenever any of our chicks leave our USGS Maryland facilities for the wild, we bid them farewell with hope and, yes, a bit of parental worry for their future. We know some chicks won’t make it because survival is tenuous in the natural world.

Of the 10 cranes we raised and released last year in Louisiana, only 5 remain alive — one is presumed dead, another appears to have been eaten by a predator, and a third was euthanized because of a lung infection. But these shooting deaths are another thing entirely, and entirely preventable.

Each such death is a robbery of the investment made by the American public, and negates countless hours of careful work by scientists, aviculturists, volunteers, and others toward the conservation of this magnificent bird.

Whooping crane Chick L10 was hatched on June 9, 2010, from a breeding pair at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. As a young chick, Chick L10 was timid about going into the back field for her exercise walks. But by the time she was released in Louisiana, Chick L10 had become confident and unafraid. She was even known for sneaking up on the costumed technicians and pecking at them.

Last year, when we sent these and eight other chicks to Louisiana, we celebrated with the State and others about the species return there after an absence of some 60 years. These shootings are, as the State of Louisiana noted, “a profound setback” for the reintroduction program. The death of two birds will not destroy the natural world, but the attitude that has led to the intentional killing of endangered species is a clear indication of the extent of education needed to develop a more generally accepted conservation ethic.

Ultimately, the understanding that human welfare is intimately and directly tied to conservation of intact natural ecosystems is crucial.

As for us, the USGS whooping crane team, we will continue raising chicks and working with our dedicated partners to restore this species because we believe that chick by chick, bird by bird, these cranes will and should have a chance to one day thrive in the wild again. It is wonderfully gratifying to be able to contribute to the survival of such a spectacular species and to recognize them as a symbol of how humans can conserve and even add to the ecological integrity of our environment.

John B. French, Jr., Ph.D., is the leader of the Whooping Crane Program at the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

An adult female polar bear and her two cubs travel across the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean north of the Alaska coast.

USGS science supports management, conservation, and restoration of imperiled, at-risk, and endangered species.

Imperiled, at-risk, and endangered species receive special research interest at USGS, which is the scientific arm of the Department of the Interior. Our research on species diversity, life history, health and diseases, community ecology, and habitat requirements of at-risk species supports the management, conservation, and restoration of our nation’s aquatic and wildlife resources.

Polar Bears and Sea Ice: Polar bears were the first species listed as threatened because of observed and projected declines in sea-ice. Over the past 25 years, the summer sea ice melt period in the Arctic has lengthened, and sea ice cover has declined dramatically. Since 1985, scientists at the USGS Alaska Science Center have conducted research on polar bears to inform policy makers regarding conservation of the species and its habitat. Ongoing studies are designed to document population responses of polar bears to changing ice conditions and refine models used to project the future status of polar bears worldwide. These studies will provide managers with information needed to develop strategies to assure long-term polar bear survival in a changing ice environment.

Learn more

Listen to Corecast Who’s Your Mama? Conservation Genetics and At-Risk Species

USGS Sea Otter Studies Clue in on Coastal Health: Sea otters are a favorite at zoos and aquariums but three of the nine wild sea otter populations in the U.S. are federally listed as threatened. In California, USGS biologists lead an annual population census to assess the local populations’ recovery, working closely with state agencies and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. USGS biologists are also teaming up with government, aquarium, and university researchers to conduct the Pacific Nearshore Project, which assesses the health of coastal waters and resources in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and California. Scientists will investigate sea otter populations in these waters for critical clues to the health of these economically and ecologically important habitats.

Learn more  

Caution:  Slow-Moving Mammals: USGS conducts long-term, detailed studies on the life

A Manatee in Florida

 history, population dynamics, and ecological requirements of the West Indian manatee. Federally listed as endangered, the manatee is a large, gentle, plant-eating, and slow-moving marine mammal. Entirely aquatic, their range is limited by temperature. Manatees cannot survive for extended periods in water colder than about 63°F. USGS biologists work cooperatively with federal and state researchers and managers on research identified as essential for the recovery of the species.

Learn more

The Whooping Crane: Back from Extinction: Large and majestic, the whooping crane was once on the brink of extinction.  America’s tallest bird stands five feet tall with a wingspan of about eight feet, and is federally listed as endangered. All the birds alive in North America, currently about 250 birds, are descendants from a flock of only 16 individual birds. USGS is engaged in a whooping crane captive breeding program and conducts research on whooper propagation, monitoring wild populations, survival of released birds, and veterinary care.

Learn more 

A Male Spectacled Eider in Alaska

Hide and Seek: Eiders at Sea:

After breeding numbers of spectacled eiders, a large sea duck, declined by 96 percent at a primary breeding area in Alaska, the species was listed as threatened.  Potential risks to eiders include being subjected to increased exposure during storms in winter, changes in foods because of declining ice, and warming temperatures in the Bering Sea.  Increased vessel traffic in new ice-free shipping lanes may also impact eiders. To evaluate these potential threats, USGS is using satellite telemetry to track eiders when these colorful birds are in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas.  Scientists have already located previously unknown wintering areas of these birds, and studies are continuing to document changes in distribution and abundance in the rapidly changing Arctic.

Learn more

Jeepers! Those Endangered Honeycreepers: Climate change and disease threaten many species of Hawaiian honeycreepers, unusual birds that live in high-elevation rain forests on the islands of Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii, which are cool enough to limit transmission of the introduced disease, avian malaria. USGS scientists have documented recent dramatic increases in avian malaria on the Alakai plateau on Kauai that could affect recovery of two endangered honeycreepers, the ‘Akikiki (Kauai creeper) and `Akeke`e (Kauai akepa), and one endangered thrush, the puaiohi (small Kauai thrush). They are continuing to work on projects to determine how some more common native forest birds may be adapting to this disease and whether they hold important keys for long-term conservation of more threatened species.

In addition, USGS scientists have studied the critically endangered palila for 25 years; this species feeds on the seeds of the māmane, a native tree that is nutritious but toxic to many other vertebrate species. The palila population has declined steadily during the past 8 years, putting the remaining 1,300 birds at very high risk of extinction. USGS biologists have provided much-needed information on palila life history and on developing restoration techniques, including returning palila to portions of their former range. Some of those birds established a breeding colony at the new site, proving the potential value of translocation for reestablishing populations. Much of the recent decline is due to drought, but long-term browsing by introduced sheep has also reduced the ability of the palila’s subalpine woodland habitat to support them. New research will help managers evaluate how vegetation responds to periodic sheep removals. For more info on climate change and honeycreepers.

Learn more

Ecology and Diagnosis of Introduced Avian Malaria in Hawaiian Forest Birds

Jeepers Creepers! Climate Change Threatens Endangered Honeycreepers

Palila Restoration: Lessons from Long-term Research

What a Breeding Western Yellow-Billed Cuckoo Wants: The western yellow-billed

A Western Yellow-Billed Cuckoo

cuckoo is a shy, neotropical migrant bird once common throughout the American West; it is currently a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. After spending the winter in South America, western cuckoos arrive in the Western United States beginning in June to breed along rivers and streams. The western cuckoo, however, has disappeared from the Pacific Northwest and Canada, leaving breeding to occur in isolated areas along rivers in Arizona, California, and New Mexico. Scientists with the USGS and Northern Arizona University studied this bird along the lower Colorado River in Arizona to understand its habitat needs. This research revealed that western cuckoos prefer habitat dominated by large continuous areas of streamside habitat dominated by native trees.

Learn more  

Mussels on the Edge:  Native freshwater mussels are among the most fascinating, widespread, and endangered animals in fresh waters. They play important ecological roles in our lakes and rivers and their shells are used to produce cultured pearls. Mussels are threatened by changes in flow patterns within rivers caused by dams, dikes, and levees; by sediment increases in rivers and streams; and by invasive species, such as zebra mussels and Asian carps, that compete with mussels for food.  Rising water temperatures and drought that may result from climate change have the potential to adversely affect the health and valuable services of mussel populations even more.  Research conducted by USGS scientists and partners are showing how elevated temperatures may affect the survival, growth, reproduction, and physiology of native mussels.

Learn more

Mojave Desert Tortoise found in Piute Valley in Clark County, Nevada, in 2005

USGS Delves Into Desert Tortoise Dangers:

The Mojave desert tortoise is federally listed as threatened — facing dangers such as habitat fragmentation, climate warming, as well as invasive grasses, which overrun native vegetation and increase risk of deadly wildfires. USGS biologists are using genetic studies to uncover whether these long-lived reptiles are experiencing isolation and inbreeding due to habitat loss, and conducting comprehensive habitat mapping to determine whether sufficient habitat corridors exist for tortoise populations to naturally to move across their native desert landscape — where the burrows they dig help jumpstart local ecosystems.

Learn more

USGS Research Gives Endangered Frogs a Second Hop at Survival: As part of the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI; http://armi.usgs.gov/), USGS biologists are leading the monitoring and reintroduction effort of the Southern California mountain yellow-legged frog — federally listed as endangered with only 200 wild adults remaining in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles County. Working with biologists at the San Diego Zoo, USGS biologists help reintroduce zoo-bred tadpoles and eggs to wild streams, and study their survival and how wildfires and invasive species affect these frogs.

Learn more

Elevated Extinction Risk for Mountain Salamander: The Shenandoah salamander is a

Shenandoah Salamander

small, terrestrial woodland salamander found only within the Shenandoah National Park.  Like other high-elevation species, this salamander is severely threatened by climate change, which is expected to result in dramatic temperature and moisture changes in the Appalachians. Because many high-elevation salamander species are specifically adapted to the unusual conditions typical of these sites, they may not be able to survive the changing conditions in the future without management.  Compounding their risk is that many of these high-elevation species have extraordinarily small ranges, including the endangered Shenandoah salamander. USGS ARMI (Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative; http://armi.usgs.gov/) scientists are combining detailed habitat models (these show where the species occurs) with experimental tests of the fate of the species under future climate conditions to forecast the extinction risk for this species and to provide information to the National Park Service on the best way to help lessen this extinction risk.

Learn more

A Devilish Situation for the Devils Hole Pupfish: Contained deep within a limestone cavern in the Mojave Desert, Devils Hole is a constant temperature (93 degrees), 10 by 50 foot pool of water. Devils Hole pupfish live only in Devils Hole, dependent on a tiny spawning shelf less than 13 feet long and 7 feet wide. There, these tiny colorful fish – the males a sparkling blue, the females a more subdued grey-blue or silvery-blue – have made their home for thousands of years. Devils Hole pupfish populations remained about 400-500 individuals until the late 1960s when the water level in the pool dropped in response to pumping of nearby irrigation wells. Pupfish numbers declined precipitously, and though water in Devils Hole is now maintained at a minimum level, the pupfish are still greatly imperiled.  With intensive management efforts, pupfish numbers are increasing from a critical low of just 38 individuals in 2006 to about 118 in 2010.  USGS scientists and their partners are using video to help them assess relationships between environmental conditions and spawning in the pupfish to help managers better understand the habitat and spawning requirements and ultimately help in captive propagation.

Learn more

A Face Only a Mother Could Love: The endangered humpback chub is a freshwater fish found only in the Colorado River Basin. Like other native Colorado River fish species, the humpback chub has an unusual body shape, presumably an adaptation to life in a large, active river. The USGS has developed a mark-recapture model to estimate adult population trends and the number of juvenile fish surviving to adulthood for the Grand Canyon population. The most recent USGS analysis indicates that the number of Grand Canyon adult humpback chub—fish 4 years old or older and capable of reproducing—increased by about 50 percent between 2001 and 2008. Scientists estimate that there are about 7,650 adult fish in the Grand Canyon population.

 Learn more   

The Merrimack River draining northeast Massachusetts and New Hampshire is home to two sturgeon species: the shortnose sturgeon (federally endangered) and the Atlantic sturgeon (under consideration for federal listing).

Coastal Migration of Merrimack River Sturgeons:

The Merrimack River draining northeast Massachusetts and New Hampshire is home to two sturgeon species: the shortnose sturgeon (federally endangered) and the Atlantic sturgeon (under consideration for federal listing).  Atlantic sturgeon make extensive coastal migrations, but those captured within the Gulf of Maine appear to remain within the region.  Developing interests in coastal hydro-kinetic power turbines (these harness the power from moving water), particularly in Canadian waters, may prove to be a significant threat to coastal-wandering sturgeon and a more detailed understanding of their movements may assist hydro-kinetic development.  Until recently, shortnose sturgeon were believed to spend much of their lives within their natal river system, particularly populations in the northeast and Gulf of Maine.  A recent collaboration of the USGS with university and state partners identified a previously unobserved coastal spawning migration of pre-spawning female shortnose sturgeon. 

Learn more