A female West African manatee calf born on Jan 17 is now ready to greet visitors at Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in Hengqin. It is the fifth such birth in captivity in the resort, signifying Chimelong's noteworthy achievements in plant and animal conservation as well as popular science education. 

The mother, Guagua, was only in labor for 80 minutes. The manatee calf, now in good health, has started independent nursing and is learning to swim with Guagua. 

Newborn West African manatee calf with her mother Guagua [Photo by Zhu Xi / Zhuhai Daily]

To date, the resort's manatee family has welcomed five new members. The other four calves were born in 2018, 2019, and 2020. 

Manatees are large aquatic mammals and their calves are usually very close to the mother. They are very clever and research has shown that they are comparable to dolphins in visual and sound recognition. 

A West African adult manatee can grow up to 300 to 330 centimeters (10 to 11 ft), with a weight of around 1,200 kilograms.

There are only three kinds of manatees existing around the world, namely Amazon, West Indian, and West African manatees. All of them were listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list in 2012.