A manatee who died in a Florida aquarium earlier this year suffered fatal injuries caused by sex with the aquatic mammal’s brother, officials said.
Hugh, 38, died unexpectedly on April 29 at the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Sarasota. A necropsy performed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab found the fatal wound was a “14.5 cm long tear in the ventral wall” of his colon.
Mote shed some more light on Hugh’s passing this week, saying the injury was likely the result of increased sexual activity with his brother, Buffett.
“On the day of Hugh’s passing, Hugh and Buffett engaged in natural, yet increased, mating behavior observed and documented in manatees both in managed care and in the wild,” the aquarium said in a statement earlier this week. “This was the first time such heightened mating behavior was witnessed between the two manatees.”
The aquarium added: “Hugh and Buffett were both observed initiating and mutually seeking interactions from each other throughout the day and there were no obvious signs of discomfort or distress such as listing, crunching, or active avoidance that would have triggered a need for intervention.”
Sex between male manatees — and even brothers — is far from uncommon, said Jenessa Gjeltema, an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine.
“They’re not too meticulous about who their partners are. They just have this kind of a sexual urge and then they’ll engage in activity with whomever seems to be in the area, and if that’s a female, great,” Gjeltema told NBC News on Thursday.
“But if there are not enough females around or there are only males around, they may express that sexual behavior on whatever individual may be in the vicinity.”
And as generally solitary beings, manatees don’t have a strong sense of familial structure, leading to the encounter between brothers Hugh and Buffett.
“That context of whom is related to whom is less of an important factor in their social engagements and interactions,” Gjeltema said of manatees.
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