manatee vs humanity: sirenians in captivity

[DavidBrown]

geomorph recently posted some pictures of the Antillean manatee at the Dallas World Aquarium, which prompted a discussion about the Amazonian manatee that the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco had in the 1980s.

This got me wondering:
1. Are all species of sirenians (West Indian manatees, Amazonia manatees, African manatees, dugongs) in captivity somewhere in the world? The Sydney Aquarium has dugongs and many institutions have West Indian manatees.

2. Are there any truly superb sirenian exhibits, or are they all pretty much the same? The new manatee exhibit at the Singapore River Safari looks impressive by its size and depth.

 

[zooboy28]

My thoughts on the sirenian exhibits I've seen:
-I haven't seen the new manatee exhibit at River Safari, but it certainly looks awesome. Their old one at the zoo was nothing stunning, but probably fine for the animals (if a bit cramped).
-It was certainly better than the one at the Berlin Tierpark, which is barely adequate. I think they should be in an exhibit similar to what the hippos have at the Berlin Zoo, not in a goldfish pond in the elephant house.
-The dugongs at Sydney are in a big tank, but appear to have lost some of the area they had. Its not an amazing exhibit, but I think its pretty good for them.

 

[mauro1970]

The Sydney Aquarium is one of the most underrated facilities I've been to. I went there not expecting too much until I got to the shark tunnel.

Like zooboy said, the big tank of the dugongs is not amazing but ok.

 

[lintworm]

West African manatee are in captivity in China & Japan and there will surely be an amazonian manatee somewhere in S-America.

Good manatee exhibits in Europe are in Odense & Nurnberg and probably also some other zoos. Berlin will be the most inadequate one at the moment, as Artis stopped keeping manatees and Nurnberg opened its new facility .

 

[MikeG]

Another good manatee exhibit is the one at 'Faunia', Madrid. The manatees (along with arapaima) are viewed from an underwater tunnel.

 

[zooman]

Nuremberg as mentioned is very good.

What l like is that it has a large main tank with huge viewing window has a loop that goes into the tropical house with viewing from above. I am thinking this allows the manatees to be completely out of sight of each other.

Berlin Tierpark is without a doubt as bad as it gets. Above ground indoors the echo must mind numbing.

 

[lintworm]

@Zooman, Berlins exhibit is great if you compare it to the tank were Artis kept (and bred) its manatees in...

 

[zooman]

@Zooman, Berlins exhibit is great if you compare it to the tank were Artis kept (and bred) its manatees in...

Wow that must have been horrendous. It's always frustrating when people equal reproduction with quality care. ( I am not suggesting you are , just in general). As Artis has always had a good reputation that l am aware.

Interestingly if you took away the publics visual enrichments of the Cincinnati zoos manatee enclosure it is probably no better than Berlin. I am aware that the Cincinnati exhibit is primarily for rehabilitation so unlike Berlin it is temporary but still very small.

 

[Chlidonias]

This got me wondering:
1. Are all species of sirenians (West Indian manatees, Amazonia manatees, African manatees, dugongs) in captivity somewhere in the world? The Sydney Aquarium has dugongs and many institutions have West Indian manatees.

2. Are there any truly superb sirenian exhibits, or are they all pretty much the same? The new manatee exhibit at the Singapore River Safari looks impressive by its size and depth.

1. all species are on display in Asia -- in fact all species are on display just in Japan!! Dugong in Japan and Indonesia (and Australia); there's one elderly Amazon manatee in Japan; African manatees in Japan and China and Taiwan; and West Indian manatees in Singapore, Japan, etc. I also saw a model of a Steller's sea cow in Vladivostok Aquarium if that counts.....

2. I've only seen a few exhibits, all of them pretty much just big empty tanks of water. I think the new one in Singapore will be great but I haven't seen it yet.