Sirenian International's Mermaid Ambassadors and Orphans Donate any amount by February 14th and you may Adopt one of our Mermaid Ambassadors Conch, Maya, Yara, Bahari, or Elandra at no extra cost! Keep the Adoption for yourself, or have it sent as a Valentine's Day gift to your loved one. Enter your choice of Ambassadors under "Designation" during the donation process and we'll follow-up by email to make sure the Adoption Certificate goes to the correct address.

Yara, our Amazonian Manatee Ambassador (scientific name Trichechus inunguis), is named after a Brazilian Indian word that means "Lady of the Water". She represents the smallest of all sirenians, the species that is found only in the Amazonian region of South America. These animals are unique among manatees because their distribution is limited to the fresh water habitats of the Amazon River and its tributaries. Both scientists and local communities are working to protect these endangered animals, whose numbers have been dramatically reduced by hunting, habitat destruction, and other human impacts. Many Amazonian manatees are found in Brazil where some limited funding is available for research. Their habitat also reaches into Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru where research and conservation efforts are desperately needed. Amazonian manatee behavior is strongly influenced by the annual wet-dry cycle of the Amazon River watershed. Calves are usually born in the rainy season, just as the rivers begin to flood. During the dry season, Amazonian manatees can become stranded in lakes as the mighty Amazon recedes. Some scientists think that an unusually slow metabolism enables manatees to survive with little or no food for long periods during the dry season. Photo (c) Doug Perrine/Seapics.com; Yara, SI's Amazonian Manatee Ambassador (c) Sirenian International, Inc.

Conch, our Florida Manatee Ambassador (scientific name Trichechus manatus latirostris), is named after the beautiful conch seashell commonly associated with Florida. He represents a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, and is the largest of all living seacows. Over three decades of research by universities, governmental agencies, and NGOs, have contributed to our understanding of Florida manatee ecology and behavior. Florida manatees are the most northern of the sirenians. They are found in Florida year-round. During warmer summer months, some Florida manatees travel north up the east coast of the United States to Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. At least one is sighted in the Chesapeake Bay every summer. Since 1995 scientists have documented manatees along the east coast as far north as New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. One went up the Mississippi as far as Memphis, Tennessee! Florida manatees are found in fresh water rivers, in estuaries, and in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Females usually have their first calf when they are about 4 years old. Normally they only have one calf every 2-5 years, but there are rare occurrences of twins. The family unit consists only of mother and calf, who remain together for up to 2 years. Occassionally an older sibling continues to hang around its mother even when she has a new calf. Males aggregate in mating herds around a female when she is ready to conceive, but contribute no parental care to the calf. Florida manatees may live to be greater than 60 years old in the wild. The biggest single threat to Florida manatees is death from collisions with recreational watercraft. Photo (c) Doug Perrine/Seapics.com; Yara, SI's Amazonian Manatee Ambassador (c) Sirenian International, Inc.

Maya, our Antillean Manatee Ambassador (scientific name Trichechus manatus manatus), is named after the Mayan Indians whose ancient cities are found throughout Central America. She represents the other subspecies of the West Indian manatee and is sometimes referred to as a Caribbean manatee. Antillean manatees are sparsely distributed throughout the Caribbean and the NW Atlantic Ocean, from Mexico, east to the Antilles, and south to Brazil. They are found in French Guiana, Surinam, Guyana, Trinidad, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Historically Antillean manatees were hunted by local natives and sold to European explorers for food. Today they are threatened by loss of habitat, poaching, entanglement with fishing gear, and increased boating activity. Several of Sirenian International's scientists study Antillean manatees in Belize, which may be the last stronghold for the subspecies. Funds for research, education, and conservation projects are desperately needed in other Central American nations. Photo (c) Doug Perrine/Seapics.com; Yara, SI's Amazonian Manatee Ambassador (c) Sirenian International, Inc.

Bahari, our West African Manatee Ambassador (scientific name Trichechus senegalensis), is named after an African word that means "Sea Man". He represents the least studied sirenians. Photos of West African manatees very rare; our Ambassador's image is from an animal on display in the Toba Aquarium in Japan. Although we know very little about this species, scientists think they are similar to the West Indian manatees. They are found in coastal marine and estuarine habitats, and in fresh water river systems along the west coast of Africa from the Senegal River south to the Kwanza River in Angola, including areas in Gambia, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, and Zaire. Although crocodiles and sharks occasionally kill manatees in Africa, their only significant threats are from humankind, such as poaching, habitat loss, and other environmental impacts. Photo (c) Doug Perrine / Toba Aquarium / Seapics.com; Bahari, SI's West African Manatee Ambassador (c) Sirenian International, Inc.

Elandra, our Dugong Ambassador (scientific name Dugong dugon), is named after an Aboriginal word meaning "Lives by the Sea". She represents the only living species of dugong, which is widely distributed in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Although most of the research has been done in Australia, dugongs are found from the southeast coast of Africa and west coast of Madagascar, north to the Arabian peninsula, east to India, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea, the Philippines and as far north as Japan. Dugongs are quite different from manatees and are actually more closely related to the extinct Steller's sea cow than to any living species of manatee. They are never found in fresh water, but spend all their time in salt water where they feed on sea grasses. Dugongs are easy to distinguish from manatees by their "whale-like" flukes in place of the typical "paddle-like" manatee tail. Dugongs also have tusks, which are absent in all the manatee species. They may live to be greater than 70 years old in the wild, but are threatened by habitat degradation and other environmental impacts. Photo (c) Doug Perrine/Seapics.com; Yara, SI's Amazonian Manatee Ambassador (c) Sirenian International, Inc.

Our Mermaid Ambassadors are copywrited by Sirenian International, Inc. Photos were donated and are copywrited by Doug Perrine / seapics.com.

• Airuw�, an Amazonian manatee in Colombia
• Hercules, an Antillean manatee in Belize
• Woody, an Antillean manatee in Belize
• Mixirinha, an Amazonian manatee in Brazil
• Rafael, a West Indian manatee in Puerto Rico

With the failure of HPP to follow-up with retail customers who had purchased an Adoption Kit in good faith, and the failure of HPP to pay royalties to Sirenian International as agreed, we terminated our relationship with them. IF you have purchased or received as a gift one of these Manatee Adoption Kits, and HPP has failed to respond to your registration or otherwise failed to perform according to the details in the kit, please email [email protected] and I will personally send you one of our new Adoption Kits. At Sirenian International, we urgently need your continued support to provide funding to manatee & dugong research, education, and conservation projects around the world.

No matter what, we want to make sure that you are kept informed about your Mermaid Ambassador, so don't hesitate to email me. I will personally answer all emails. We are now operating our adoption program in house. Although there is no "kit", when you adopt one of our Ambassadors, you will receive an official adoption certificate, personally made out to you and signed by me and a subscription to our Electronic Newsletter, the Sirenian Voice. -- Caryn Self-Sullivan, President, Sirenian International, Inc.