Trouble With Manatees

The trouble with Manatees is that try as you might, and ChicagoLady knows best, you can't keep one as a pet. Even a baby manatee measures three to four feet long and weights between sixty and seventy pounds and would crowd even a large claw foot tub!

I saw eighteen manatees during a lunchtime trip to Wakulla Springs - you might want to visit the Friends of Wakulla Springs Website which has an excellent photo gallery page.

Wakulla Spring is a giant freshwater spring located near Tallahassee, Florida. Its waters come from an aquifer in Georgia, emerging from an underground cave system.

Though little known, Wakulla Spring is a natural wonder, one of the largest and deepest (exceeding 300 feet) fresh water springs in the world. The natural pool above the spring is exceptionally clear; the bowl is approximately three acres in size.

It was the site of the filming of "The Creature from the Black Lagoon", some of the early Tarzan movies and scenes from Airport '77.


The West Indian Manatee has adapted fully to an aquatic life style and has no hind limbs.


As its name implies, the West Indian Manatee lives in the West Indies, better known as the Caribbean, generally in shallow coastal areas. A manatee can withstand large changes in water salinity, and have been found in shallow rivers and estuaries.


It is limited to the tropics and subtropics due to an extremely low metabolic rate and lack of a thick layer of insulating body fat. During summer, these large mammals have even been found as far north as New York City, New York!


Say Cheese!
I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the teenaged girl taking the picture with her cell phone.
The Florida manatee is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee and is the largest of all living sirenians.


Adults typically run from 8-12 feet in length and run 1,500 to 1,800 pounds, although the largest are over 13 feet and weigh 3,500 pounds.


The manatee is surprisingly agile in water, and individuals have been seen doing rolls, somersaults, and even swimming upside-down. Manatees are not territorial and do not have complex predator avoidance behavior, as they have evolved in areas without natural predators.


The Manatee is an opportunistic feeder, with large adults feasting on nearly 20 to 65 pounds (9 to 30 kg) of sea grasses and plant leaves daily.


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.

The Florida manatee subspecies was listed as an endangered species on the basis of a population size of less than 2,500 mature individuals.


Momma With Calf
Makes you want to sing and/or hum the Hugh the Manatee song, does it?

As I was snorkeling down in the cayes
I came upon two manatees
I looked at them and they looked right at me
As they chewed on their dinner of hydrilla weeds
One came over and said to me
I'll tell you what life is like under the sea
My name is Hugh and I'll show to you
Just what manatees do.

Hugh the Manatee
Swimming around from caye to caye
Oh how I wish that I could be
Like Hugh the Manatee
Hugh the Manatee
Swimming around the West Indies
Oh how I wish that I could be
Like Hugh the Manatee!

You can download the entire Hugh the Manatee song (here)

You can join the Save the Manatee folks (here)