Amazonian Manatee (Trichechus inunguis)

There are three species of manatee: Amazonian, like this guy, African, and American. Unlike the other two species, the Amazonian manatee cannot survive in salt water. Manatees are unusual because they’re water mammals like whales and porpoises—they spend a lot of their time sleeping in the water, coming up for air every 20 minutes or so—but they’re strictly vegetarian. The Amazonian manatee is the smallest of the three species. Dave Gold and my aunt Laura both asked me to draw a manatee.