Belize hosts the largest known breeding population of Antillean manatees and is touted by biologists for its potential to repopulate other parts of Central America where manatees are severely reduced, rare or absent.

"It turns out that the genetic diversity of Belize's manatees is lower than some of the classic examples of critically low diversity" said U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conservation geneticist Margaret Hunter, Ph.D., who led a molecular DNA study of genetic diversity in the Antillean subspecies in Belize.

Belize's Antillean populations scored lower in genetic diversity than textbook examples of "bottlenecked" endangered species such as Wanglang giant pandas, the East African cheetah and an island koala population founded by only three koalas.