Gulf Oil Spill: Animals at Risk

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Manatees

These cow-like coastal mammals spend their winters in Florida waters and migrate northwest to Alabama during the summer. There's little data on oil spills and manatees, said the University of South Alabama's Carmichael, but they could be in trouble if oil contaminates their shoreline habitat or the vegetation they eat. Manatees are also very "touchy-feely" with one another, she said, so oil on one manatee could contaminate a whole herd.

"Right now our major concern is that it's the major migration season and these animals are migrating right into the path of the oil," she said.