The Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) in the southern Caribbean: A compilation and review of records for the Dutch Leeward islands and the central Venezuelan coast

The Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee and is found from Mexico and the Bahamas south to Brazil. It is listed as Endangered by the IUCN (Self-Sullivan & Mignucci-Giannoni,2008). Population estimation is very difficult in this species but more recently Castelblanco-Martínez, Nourisson, Quintana-Rizzo, Padilla-Saldivar & Schmitter-Soto, 2012) compiled expert estimates to suggest a total meta-population size of 6,700 animals. There is a Venezuelan regional population stretching from the Orinoco to the Guajira peninsula that was estimated to be about 400 animals (Castelblanco-Martínez et al., 2012). This population is precariously hanging on to existence along the northern Caribbean coast of South America and the species is listed as critically endangered according to the IUCN in Venezuela and locally endangered in Colombia (Boede et al., 2015;Caicedo-Herrera, Trujillo, Rodríguez & Rivera, 2004). In recent decades, very few sightings of manatees along the coast of Venezuela have been recorded.