Manatee on Livescope

[Slab]

Not the best picture, but... I was trying to get a good livescope pic of a manatee for over half hour, and this is the best I could get. In many of the other pics, they were kicking up so much sediment, that all I could see on the scope was a cloud. There were three of them. Looked like a mamma manatee and two babies. It was a little hard to tell, they kinda were standoffish! And because they were standoffish, if figure I'm right. If she wasn't a mamma, they prolly would have just hung out nearby for a better picture. But it's good to see them here in my neck of the woods. In the last two years we're been seeing more and more. There have been large groups of them literally mating in my back yard. I could see them from my kitchen window. They hung out there all day long. Was cool. Here's a close up pic from last year.

[tnduxcaller]

I saw yesterday in the news that since last fall a lot are dying around Bonito Springs to some kind of agriculture runoff killing the grass and they are starving to death. There are several hundreds that have died.

[DockShootinJack]

They are definitely some unique critters. Good photos

[BuckeyeCrappie]

Very cool....

[arkcrappie]

Those are definitely one of the coolest things I've ever encountered! Neat to see them on the St. John's in February. Looking forward to this next year.

[GreenEYESfromOHIO]

Would be really awesome to see that in side imaging! Thanks for the cool and interesting pic!

[Micanopy]

The Spanish explorers wrote about them. Said they tasted like fine roast beef. Of course their idea of “fine” was a little different than ours today. The Seminole Indians would wait until they entered into some of the springs in the area, escaping colder waters, where they could rush in and seal off the escape with logs and such. Then they would harvest them via spear and smoke the meat and tan the hide. Area villages would all gather to partake in the bounty.

Some Indians finding them in rivers would leap upon their backs and ram a hollow reed into their nostrils preventing them from diving, then use spears much like Eskimos hunting whales where they strike multiple times. Of course if you were to get caught trolling heads of cabbage with huge treble hooks embedded in them, the wardens wouldn’t take you straight to jail. They would eventually get you there, but they would want to make a point with you first.

One scoundrel jerk poacher had his home raided based on a tip. In his garage were multiple deep freezers. All were loaded with illegal wildlife. He had deer of course, and bear and others, but the investigators were unsure of what kind of meat that was packaged in a few of his freezers. He told them manatee. Well he might as well have told them he ate eagle egg omelets. The judge was lenient of course.

They are a curious and gentle beast, but they can be gregarious. I was waist deep netting mullet and a large bow wake came straight at me. I knew it was a huge shark about to eat me and ran from the water screaming like a little girl. Then he stuck his head up to laugh at me. It wasn’t funny.

Their closest living relative is the elephant, and you were looking at the West Indies variety of manatee.

[Grainraiser]

Do they ever get attacked by gators. Do they even share the same waters. I'm from Texas so I have no idea.

[Slab]

Do they ever get attacked by gators. Do they even share the same waters. I'm from Texas so I have no idea.

They most definitely share the same waters. And I'm not aware of any gator attacks upon manatee. Prolly has happened, but the adult manatee are likely too big for them. Manatee are not normally on an alligators diet, neither are humans. That's why canoers don't get eaten either. OR at least it's extremely extremely rare. I'm around gators every time I go fishing, they hang out right off my sea wall, and heck they sometimes even sun themselves on my lot as well. Ain't a big deal at all.

[Ketchn]

they get attacked often by folks with boat props who don't care or don't understand they are in the area .