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Manatees and Dugongs

From Christopher Columbus to Captain John Smith, sea travelers of yore reported mermaid sightings. Instead of mythical maidens, these men probably saw manatees (family Trichechidae), dugongs (Dugong dugon), and now-extinct Steller’s sea cows (Hydrodamalis giga), marine mammals whose names hint at their resemblance to mermaids.

Manatees, dugongs, and sea cows belong to the order Sirenia; siren is the Latin word for a mermaid-like creature that lures sailors to watery deaths with a seductive voice. In Greek mythology, sirens are also temptresses, but they have a woman’s head and a bird’s body.

Why did seamen mistake beasts for beauties? Perhaps it is because females in Sirenia and female Homo sapiens share some physical attributes. Both have mammary glands on their upper bodies near their armpits; the Carib word manati means breast or udder. Sailors may also have thought the animals’ flippers looked like human hands, and named them after the Latin word manatus, meaning “having hands.”

The common name for dugongs, which unlike manatees are strictly bottom-feeders and live on the coasts of East Africa, Asia, and Australia, derives from the word duyung, a Malay word meaning “lady of the sea.”

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—Compiled by Jennifer Winger

ZooGoer 34(6) 2000. Copyright 2000 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.

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