Panama is famous for its monkeys, sloths, toucans, colourful frogs and enormous variety of tropical wildlife, but one of its most fascinating animals is also one of the hardest to see. The manatee is a huge aquatic mammal that quietly moves through the rivers, wetlands, lagoons and coastal waters of Panama's Caribbean side. It can weigh hundreds of kilograms, yet somehow remain almost invisible beneath the muddy tropical water. You could be travelling through Bocas del Toro and have a manatee swimming beneath your boat without ever knowing it was there.
Panama's manatees are the Greater Caribbean or Antillean manatee, Trichechus manatus manatus. They are herbivores, meaning they spend their lives eating aquatic vegetation rather than hunting other animals. Their closest living relatives are actually elephants and hyraxes, which seems almost impossible when you look at a manatee's strange, rounded body. Their whiskered faces, paddle shaped flippers and enormous tails make them look like animals from another age, and in a way they are. Manatees belong to an ancient evolutionary group of aquatic mammals that has survived for millions of years.
One of the most important places for Panama's manatees is the San San Pond Sak wetlands in Bocas del Toro, particularly around the San San and Changuinola river systems. This enormous wetland contains rivers, mangroves, lagoons and coastal habitats that provide food and shelter for the animals. Researchers have found that manatees use these waterways for feeding, travelling and reproduction. The area is particularly interesting because manatees don't necessarily stay in one small location. Some have been documented moving between Panama and Costa Rica through the Changuinola and Sixaola river systems.
That means a manatee doesn't care about international borders. It can spend one part of its life in Panama and another part in Costa Rica simply by following suitable waterways. Recent research has used underwater acoustic recordings to identify individual animals and track their movements, revealing just how connected the Caribbean ecosystems of the two countries really are.
And counting these animals is much harder than you might imagine. Manatees spend long periods underwater, often in murky rivers where visibility is extremely poor. Scientists have therefore used sonar to search for them rather than relying entirely on visual sightings. In one major study, researchers surveyed nearly 2,000 kilometres of river in San San Pond Sak and recorded more than 1,000 manatee detections. Other researchers have gone even further by listening for the animals. Manatees communicate underwater with squeaks, whistles and chirps, and scientists have discovered that individual animals can have distinctive vocal characteristics. Thousands upon thousands of underwater recordings have been analyzed in an attempt to identify individual manatees and better understand the population.
Panama also has one of the strangest manatee stories anywhere in the world because of the Panama Canal. In the 1960s, people thought manatees could help control aquatic vegetation in Gatun Lake. Manatees were transported by airplane from Panama's Caribbean region to the canal area. Even stranger, one of the first animals transported was an Amazonian manatee from Peru, while several Antillean manatees were later brought from Bocas del Toro. The experiment created a small population associated with the canal that has survived for decades. It is an unusual example of how human engineering and wildlife management can create ecological consequences lasting far beyond the original experiment.
The natural population in Bocas del Toro faces a number of threats. Fishing nets can entangle manatees, particularly young animals, while boats can accidentally strike animals that are difficult to see in murky water. Habitat degradation is another concern because manatees depend on connected rivers, wetlands, mangroves and coastal environments. Protecting one small piece of habitat isn't necessarily enough if the animals need to travel through several different environments during their lives.
Baby manatees are particularly important because the future of the population depends on successful reproduction. Researchers have documented deaths of young animals in Panama, with fishing gear among the concerns. This is one reason conservation is about much more than simply protecting adult animals. A healthy population needs mothers, calves, feeding areas, breeding areas and safe routes between them.
Despite their enormous size, manatees are remarkably peaceful. They are not predators and have no interest in attacking people. Their reputation as gentle animals is well deserved. But that doesn't mean people should chase, touch or feed them. Wildlife encounters are best when the animal remains in control of the interaction. If a manatee happens to appear, the ideal experience is simply to watch it quietly and allow it to continue on its way.
Imagine travelling through a quiet Caribbean river in Bocas del Toro. The jungle surrounds you, mangrove roots reach into the water and the surface is almost perfectly still. Suddenly there is a small ripple. A rounded back appears. You see a nose, hear a breath and then the animal disappears beneath the surface. Within seconds, there is almost no evidence that it was ever there.
That is what makes Panama's manatees so fascinating. They are enormous animals living surprisingly close to people, yet they remain largely hidden. They connect Panama's rivers with its Caribbean coastline and even with neighbouring Costa Rica. They have their own underwater voices, travel surprisingly long distances and have a history involving airplanes, the Panama Canal and some of the country's most important wetlands.
Panama has plenty of wildlife that demands your attention. The manatee doesn't. It simply disappears beneath the water and carries on with its ancient life. And somewhere beneath the muddy rivers of Bocas del Toro, one of Panama's largest mammals may be quietly swimming past while almost nobody on the surface knows it is there.