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Bibliography Record

  Fitt, William
  2020
Florida manatees Trichechus manatus latirostris actively consume the sponge Chondrilla caribensis.
PeerJ 8: c8443. 12 pp. 1 tab. 4 figs. + online supplemental information. DOI 10.7717/peerj.8443 Jan. 22, 2020.
–ABSTRACT: The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris Linnaeus 1758) actively selects and consumes the "chicken-liver" sponge Chondrilla caribensis. Manatees ate over 10% of C. caribensis on a sample dock, mostly from pylons that received no direct sunlight. Since manatees reportedly eat mostly seagrasses and algae, it was thought that the chlorophyll-a content of the symbiotic cyanobacteria in C. caribensis might be correlated to the amount eaten; however the correlation was not significant (P >0:05). C. caribensis has variable chemical defenses and round spherasters (spicules), but these do not appear to be effective deterrents to predation by manatees. This is the first direct evidence that manatees actively seek out and consume a sponge.

Related Index Records

4 related index terms

Behavior, Ingestive
(SEE ALSO: Behavior, Epimeletic; Behavior, Et-epimeletic; Food; Mastication; Milk)
   2020Fitt, W. (TML; Florida; eating sponge Chondrilla caribensis)
Florida
   2020Fitt, W. (TML; eating Chondrilla caribensis & other sponges)
Food
(SEE ALSO: Behavior, Ingestive; Captivity, Sirenians in; Digestive System; Food Plants; Weed Control) (NOTE: Plants reported as part of the captive but not the natural diet of sirs. will not necessarily be found under Food Plants. Papers referring to them are, however, indexed here.)
  *2020Fitt, W. (TML; Florida; Chondrilla caribensis & other sponges)
Trichechus manatus latirostris (Harlan, 1824) Hatt, 1934
   2020Fitt, W. (Florida; eating Chondrilla caribensis & other sponges)