The Amazing Manatee

The manatee is a mammal that spends its life in the shallow rivers and seas, in both fresh and salt water.  They live in shallow waters because as herbivores, they eat water grasses, normally found no more than 15 feet deep.  As mammals, they have to stick their nose out of the water every 10 to 15 minutes to breathe.  They are gentle creatures that are often called “Sea Cows,” since they graze on water grasses.  They have no natural enemies except for mankind that pollutes the water and runs into the manatees with their boat propellers.

Their natural habitat includes fresh water and saltwater environments in the southeastern US, Mexico and South America.  They also live in the Caribbean Sea.  They are one of the few aquatic animals that move freely between salt and fresh water.

The manatee is really an amazing creature!

• The manatee gets severely cut by the boat propellers.  But, amazingly, many survive.  How?  They were designed with 90% white blood cells—the ones that fight infection, disease, and help in the healing process.  See the scars on the manatee to the right!  In comparison, we humans only have 1% of our blood cells that are white.  Do you think the manatee evolved that large % of white blood cells after the invention of motor boats?  Or, did their Designer look far into the future and know they would need that healing ability in order to survive.
• A manatee cannot turn its head because the six bones in its spine—the vertebrae—are so close together.  That’s why it isn’t able to get out of the way of boats—it can’t see what is coming behind it without turning around.
• Manatees have a sixth sense called “taste-smell” on the tip of each whisker that is placed throughout its body about 1” apart.  Since it can’t use its nose to smell underwater, God provided this special sixth sense.  These whiskers are very sensitive with four nerves attached to each one that helps them both taste and smell things around them.
• The manatee has all molar teeth.  They are called “marching molars” because they come in at the back of the mouth and move slowly forward and finally fall out.  When they chew water grasses there are bits of sand in them that works like sandpaper in wearing their teeth down.  But no problem, God has provided them with a means to continuously replace the worn out teeth.
• God gave the manatee two ways to protect their eyes from the salt and dirt in the water.  They have a nictitating membrane, like the eagle.  It is a transparent eyelid that they can see through even when closed.  They also have a gland close to each eye that produces an oil that protects their eyes from the salt water.  Like I said, God thought of everything.
• As an air-breathing mammal, the manatee sleeps on the bottom of the water.  The whole system slows down when sleeping.  Its heart only beats once in 15 minutes.
• The bones in a manatee’s flipper are similar to a human hand. The jointed “finger bones” of the flipper help the manatee move through the water, bring food to its mouth, and hold objects. Three or four nails are found at the end of each flipper.
• The adult manatee averages about 10 feet long and weighs about 1000 pounds.

How Can This Be?

As we said, the manatee gets severely cut by the propellers of boats.  Is it not amazing that they have 90% of white blood cells—just exactly what is needed to fight infection and disease they get from those deep cuts.  Humans have only 1% of white blood cells to fight infections, disease and help in the healing process.  Now that is a huge difference!

Since the manatee has no natural enemies and is a herbivore, it seems unusual that they would need this high percentage of white blood cells for healing.  As far as we know, they are only needed when they collide with boats and are severely cut from the propellers.

Since evolution teaches that creatures do not “evolve” an ability until it is needed, are we to believe that they did not multiply their white blood cells until motor boats were invented in 1907.  If evolution takes millions of years, how did the manatees make such a swift change in just the last 100 years.  It’s obvious they didn’t!  God designed them that way because he cares for all of his creation—including you!