Manatee sighting

[kaybee]

My wife was taking her daily stroll in the park near where we live which is adjacent to a river, and yesterday (09 Jan 2009) spotted some very large very slow moving submerged creatures:
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Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be marine mammals, manatees! She saw a group of about 5 in total, including what appeared to be a mother and her calf:
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Fairly large one:
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Another one broaches the surface for a breath of air
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[Rue]

LUCKY! :18:

I wanna see a mantee!

Don't suppose they ever come north and hang with the pike? :hmm3grin2orange:

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Awesome. Great to see some healthy specimens of an endangered species, especially a potential mother and calf. Great shots of them as well.

[kacourt]

That's great! Thanks for sharing.

[Sharon]

Awesome!!!thumbs2:

[Wild Turkey]

Wow what a sight! you are lucky!
Thanks for sharing thumbs2: :22:

[smaug]

Wow,Thats cool.Its hard to imagine that the old seafarers thought they were beutiful mermaids,,,,,,,they must have been REALLY lonely.Do you get to see them like this often?

[Brookfish]

How cool is that.great pics!

[kaybee]

Do you get to see them like this often?

I didn't see them myself (I was at work at the time), my wife did. She goes to the park nearly daily and this is her first time seeing them since we moved here in 2004. I've personally have only seen them in captivity.

My wife says she was intrigued and watched them for about an hour.

The larger one's slowly swam away, but the mother and youngster lingered in the area for quite awhile (they were still in the same spot when my wife finally returned home).

[smaug]

I would be intrigued as well,they seem almost magical.So peaceful and innocent.

[Northernguy]

That would have been a great site to see!
Thanks for sharing.

[sandy_n]

That's so cool!!!

[Deleted User]

That is so cool. Nice pics too. thumbs2:

[Diego Dangers.]

When I was still in Florida, we had property in Key Largo, and one time, real late at night, a wounded one came in. I jumped into the marina and fed it some lettuce, and they really love it when you spray them with freshwater, also learned that they eat tomatoes. haha.

[lobsternoob]

Great that she got to see them in their natural habitat, and cool pics! Awesome animals in my opinion, I had the great fortune of getting to snorkel with them a few times in Florida. They are really cool and docile animals, definitely my favorite aquatic mammal! GO SEACOW!