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The Clever Florida Manitee Plays Dumb While Being As Smart Or Smarter Than Dolph



The Florida manatee has fooled us all for ages. We thought it was as
slow to cogitate as its "sweet potato" body is to move. Never did the
clever "sea cow" let on that it's actually as brainy as, or perhaps
even brainier than, a somersaulting dolphin. But now its lethargic
disguise has been penetrated, thanks to the researches of a
neuroscientist at the University of Florida.

Roger L. Reep, who, along with a small group of other researchers, has
discovered that trichechus manatus latirostris is not the slow learner
it has forever pretended to be. In fact, while manatees are definitely
slower moving than dolphins, they're just as quick at learning tasks.
Only they're harder to motivate, because they won't leap for fish.

They're herbivores and, apparently, they don't even speed up when a
researcher waves a seaweed temptingly in their direction.

The researchers concluded, however, that under that hulking exterior
coasts a subtle mammal that is perfectly adapted to its environment.

The clever paddlers have the lowest brain-to-body size ratio of any
mammal and the surface of their brains is smooth. But Reep believes,
instead of a brain that's too small for its body, the tricky sea
creature may have a body that's big for its brain. Why? To help it
stay warm and have enough of a digestive system to nourish itself on
the low-protein and low-cal sea greenery it grazes on for its
survival.

Reep also thinks that the thickness of manatee's cerebrum, which
contains multi-layers, may account for how the tricky mammal can
disguise its brain power under a smooth exterior.

And Dr. Reep and his colleagues have discovered that manatees may be
able to hear low-frequency sounds, with vibrations as low as 23 to
1,000 hertz. That ability

http://www.dontplayplay.com/html/Humor/20060929/25276.html



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