Diet
Although generally speaking, manatees are herbivores, the African manatee also eats clams, mollusks, and fish they find in nets. The majority of the diet of the African manatee is composed of many different types of flora found above or hanging over the water, instead of submerged. African manatees inhabiting rivers eat mostly overhanging plants growing on the river banks. The diets of African manatees living in estuaries consist of just mangrove trees. Each day, the African manatee will eat about 4 to 9 percent of its body weight in wet vegetation. Microorganisms in the African manatee's long large intestine (which measures up to 20 metres or 66 feet in length) aid the manatee in digesting the large quantity and variety of vegetation it takes in every day.
Read more about this topic: African Manatee
Famous quotes containing the word diet:
“Newsmen believe that news is a tacitly acknowledged fourth branch of the federal system. This is why most news about government sounds as if it were federally mandatedserious, bulky and blandly worthwhile, like a high-fiber diet set in type.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“The pills are a mother, but better,
every color and as good as sour balls.
Im on a diet from death.”
—Anne Sexton (19281974)
“Literary tradition is full of lies about povertythe jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)