Feeding preferences of West Indian manatees in Florida, Belize, and Puerto Rico as indicated by stable isotope analysis.

The article presents a study which investigates the feeding preferences and the habitat use of the endangered West Indian manatee Trichechus manatus species in Florida, Belize and Puerto Rico. It mentions the use of stable isotope analysis in interpreting the feeding behavior of the species and the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to analyze the differences of the manatee skin from the values of nitrogen and carbon isotopes calculated with the use of statistical analyses. Results show that the species are fed from sea grasses or freshwater vegetation.