Manatees dying of the cold!

[kedigato]

Florida is having a very cold snap and the manatees are dying.

Please read the following link from CNN -


www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/12/manatee.cold.weather/index.html

[DAG]

Watched the video, very sad to see that!

[victoria]

Oh, this is sad Sis ... the weather is causing havoc everywhere and to every living thing ... just, so so sad!

[pete]

Thats an amazing drop in water temperature, it sounds almost unbelievable that the water could be that much colder than normal.

It must be a very prolonged spell of extra cold weather they are having.

[kedigato]

It is so sad, they are such peaceful animals that don't hurt anybody or anything, but somehow always manage to end up on the wrong end of the stick, poor things.

When I looked at the video, there was a link to one about turtle that are also in a bad way due to the cold water. Did any of you watch that, too?

[kedigato]

The following text is copied from the Weather thread of 20th January. There are no good manatee pics this time due to them being separated and in the Sick Bay area, so allowing the wild ones to swim up to the warm spring and so avoid freezing to death.



"Yes, we did see the manatees but not as many nor as close up as in the past. Due to the cold spells Florida has been having this winter, the park rangers moved the "tame" ones into a small closed-off area near the manatee sick bay and opened the gate on the river for the wild ones to be able to enter and get into the warm spa water. Normally, this gate is closed so that the wild ones can't get in and have to stay in the river, and only the "tame" ones have the benefit of the spa in the lagoon. This is where we could see them close-up, almost close enough to touch when the ranger got in the lagoon and they came up to him/her right near where the audience was sitting.

The "tame" ones were badly injured in the wild, usually by motor boats driving over them and lacerating them with the propellers. Manatee lungs are close under the skin of their backs and so some of them were horribly injured. The ones that were lucky enough to be saved are kept in this state park, or in Lowry Zoo in Tampa, to be treated and, if possible, they are later returned to the wild. Some spend the rest of their days here if their wounds were too severe for them to fend for themselves in the wild.

Babies born of mothers being treated spend their lives here. Being in captivity, the mothers can't teach their babies how to cope in the wild so they are unable to learn where to go, what to eat, ................

We saw 2 park rangers out in canoes at the lagoons entrance (on the river side) to prevent people coming in to get close to, or even harass, manatees."



This is the lagoon where the spa is and where the wild manatees now come to warm up. This is one of the rangers telling us why the "tame" ones are not here at the moment but that we can visit them over in the Sick Bay later on. This area has been renovated since we visited last year - the boardwalks are new, a see-through fence has been erected (behind the Ranger), more seats added and also 4 or 5 picnic tables.





Sign about the manatees -





We were lucky and got to see a wild mother and baby manatee at the shoreline in the lagoon. The pic is unclear due to the sun shining on the water -





Five or six "tame" manatees in the Sick Bay pool where they are fed. It is rather overcrowded but since the manatees can't forage for themselves in the Sick Bay, they are fed in this pool so the water plants that they eat don't get wasted. The Park was lucky in that a company that clears ponds of water weed and then dispose of it, gave several tons of it to the Park, they just had to pick it up (hard work). This was a boon since the manatees were confined for a while and couldn't forage for themselves.





Some wild manatees in the Park but near the entrance to the lagoon -









A Ranger boat docked near the entrance to the lagoon -






Two Rangers out in canoes guarding the entrance to the park. It seems that many people try to get in this way and to "play" with the manatees, which is strickly forbidden and carries heavy penalties -

[DAG]

Thanks for the update Kedi, lets hope they all survive in reasonable comfort!

Shame on the people who just want to play with the manatees and disobey the rules!

[arney]

Thanks for this Kedi, the saving grace is that there are people who care for these gentle creatures and some at least can survive to live out their natural lives.

Arney