I really enjoyed reading this book. I think it was very educational, and there were several images throughout it that sort of broke up the text and made it easier to read. ( )

In this book, scientists detail their work with manatees and what goes into deciding that a species should be on the endangered list. In the Amazon, Dr. Fernando Rosas specializes in manatees and how to help them survive in that area. He tracks manatees with a transmitter so he can study manatee physiology in the wild along with his studies of manatees in tanks when baby or injured manatees are brought to the scientists. For him, a major challenge is finding a safe place to release these manatees into the wild. Other scientists study Florida manatees and do population surveys to see how healthy the manatees are and how many are in the wild. More scientists, particularly Lucy Keith, explores a third manatee species in West Africa work to combine information on what is known about manatees so that people can determine how endangered these animals are and study manatee bones to find additional information.

This book is a terrific resource for students to learn about manatees, conservation, science, and how scientists work. Each section discussing one type of manatee and the scientist that studies that type is color-coded so it is easy to see the sections at a glance. Each section gives some information about that type of manatee, the specific work that scientist does to learn more about these creatures, and details a particular activity. High-color photographs of manatees, scientists at work, and the people who interact with manatees in daily life help break up the large amount of text about the scientific work done to learn more about these animals. There is a lot of information in this book, so some readers might want to read only one of the sections or skim to get the basic ideas about researching manatees. This book helps readers feel like they’re on a scientific expedition themselves and will help them become more familiar with the work that scientists do and this particular species. ( )

Manatees are docile, large sea mammals who are eaten in some parts of the world, feared in others, and adored in still others. But human encroachment, disease, environmental hazards, and being hunted, among many other issues, are causing their numbers to decline. In Manatee Scientists, readers meet three scientists working very hard in three different parts of the world to save the manatee. Get an eye-opening, close-up view of their far-flung expeditions to Brazil, Senegal, and Florida in this beautifully photographed addition to the paperback collection of Scientist in the Field books. (amazon)

Read my review at http://nancycastaldonaturespeak.blogspot.com/ ( )

Lourie, P. (2011). The manatee scientists. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 80 pp. ISBN: 978-0-547-15254-7. (Hardcover); $18.99.

If one looks at the picture on page 5 of this book, one may conclude that this is, indeed, another elephant book. We see on page 64 that manatees are distant relatives of elephants. The Manatee Scientist shows the work of scientists in three continents working to save the three species of manatees that exist in our world. What makes this another must buy for all school libraries is the recognition that although the three areas of the world, West Africa, Brazil, and Florida, are totally different in many ways, the scientists involved in their preservation follow very similar procedures to save this mammal from extinction. Gathering accurate, verifiable information; understanding the total environment; collecting bone, blood, and DNA samples; and more are universal to study of any animal anywhere in the world. Lourie takes us on various kinds of water transport, through dense forests, into well traveled and populated resort areas, into the discharge zones of power plants, and into satellites to learn about these amazing, gentle mammals. And what student in Michigan will not be delighted to learn that the manatee regulates its position in the water by farting!