African manatee
Amazing fact
African manatees rely on microbes in their large intestine to digest some plant materials.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
African manatees rely on microbes in their large intestine to digest some plant materials.
THE REAL WORLD
The real African manatee
- Scientific name
- Trichechus senegalensis
- Japanese name
- アフリカマナティー
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Sirenia
- Family
- Trichechidae
- Genus
- Trichechus
A manatee of the west coast of Africa. It lives in shallow coastal waters, rivers and large, shallow river mouths.
Like the dugong, it is a plant-eating sea mammal. It mainly eats plants that grow in the water.
A baby is born with its tail coming out before its head, and it can swim on its own.
How the African manatee lives
They are thought to be active at least partly at night. They may also eat plants hanging out over the water from the bank. They may live alone or in family groups. Calves grow up depending on their mothers.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Diet
- Mainly aquatic vegetationUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Range
- Southern Mauritania to Angola, Mali, Niger, and Chad鳥羽水族館
Where the African manatee has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- アフリカマナティー
- 简体中文
- 非洲海牛
- 繁體中文
- 非洲海牛
- 한국어
- 아프리카매너티
- Español
- Manatí africano
- Français
- Lamantin d'Afrique
- Deutsch
- Afrikanischer Manati
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-boi-africano
- Italiano
- Lamantino africano
- العربية
- خروف البحر السنغالي
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Lembu laut afrika
- Русский
- Африканский ламантин
- Türkçe
- Afrika Manatisi
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — アフリカマナティーChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Trichechus senegalensisChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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