2012 COURSE DATES: AUGUST 4 – 17, 2012 - Sirenian International

140 Harper and Schulte
each to Sara, Rita and Stubbie. Excluding the juvenile males from total contacts,
Charlotte and Sara accounted for 11 of the 13 encounters (Table 2).
All Facilities
All manatees, with the exception of one, were involved in some type of
interaction with other individuals. Density of manatees per unit volume explained
the majority of variation in contact rates (Fig. 1; r 2 ¼ 0.96). The coefficient of
TABLE 2. Matrix constructed from non-aggressive manatee contacts at Sea World of Florida
Brooks a
Pistachio b
Charlotte c
Sara c
Rita c
Stubbie c
Total
Brooks — 3 15 13 2 2 35
Pistachio 3 — 1 4 4 4 16
Charlotte 1 0 — 8 0 0 9
Sara 2 0 3 — 0 0 5
Rita 0 0 1 1 — 0 2
Stubbie 1 0 0 0 0 — 1
a Juvenile manatee (2 years old).
b Juvenile manatee (1.5 years old).
c Adult female manatee.
Total Number of Contacts
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
HSSP
Epcot
SeaWorld
y = 9.9482x + 21.887
R 2 = 0.96
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of Manatees per 1,000,000 L water
Fig. 1. Number of contacts for each facility (Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Walt
Disney World’s The Living Seas at Epcot, Sea World of Florida, and Lowry Park Zoo)
initiated by manatees per million L water within each aquarium.
LPZ
7