Mermaids, et al

[zonbonzovi]

Trichechus manatus

Whomever thought these resembled the mythical & hot fishwomen must have been drinking straight off the still. This is my power animal Over many trips to FL over the years I've seen a grand total of two so it was quite a pleasant surprise to find seven in 4 hours time...Mrs. Z was ecstatic! We saw two mothers and their calves + a trio of males combing the river for a salad. They are not shy and this is probably the reason they come into contact with boat motors so often. They came right up the canoe for a little Royalex rubdown and were kind enough to display their methods for defecation(turning belly up and shooting a massive cloud of manatee poo) Here's the 1st mother & offspring:

Curiously, we saw quite a few gators hanging about on this spring-fed river. For the uninitiated, spring-fed rivers are much colder than the usual tannin-stained rivers of the deep South. Someone forgot to remind these guys of the predator/prey relationship:

Naptime is for everyone

I have many more photos to play with...will be back.

 

[catfishrod69]

Awesome pics man. Manatees are such gentle giants. I really really really wish mermaids were real. Would have to have one of those, or several.

 

[Entomancer]

Wait...they poop into the air?

That's....I dunno what. It must have been funny and horrifying at the same time.

 

[zonbonzovi]

@John...I used to have erotic dreams about Amazonian women w/ eagle wings & beaks so I yeah, I hear ya lol.

@Lord...I don't know if it's an all the time thing but the poo remains underwater as it's being expelled. The fertilizing capabilities are probably fantastic!

 

[catfishrod69]

Haha thats awesome man. Mine are more along the lines of fairies. Basically any minature woman in that type of clothing, with wings lol. I used to print off fairy pics that were black and white, and color them with colored pensil. They turned out pretty wicked.

I wonder what size deli cup you can keep those manatees in

 

[Quazgar]

Very nice. I recently saw Manatees at the Tampa Zoo, including a 2 day old calf. They are interesting animals, and I'd love to see one in the wild.

 

[Shrike]

Great pictures! That must be a very well fed alligator...Thanks for sharing.

 

[Risky]

Every time I see a Manatee, it reminds me of that episode of "Manswers" where they said a female Dugong is the animal with a vagina most like a female human. ...How do they know these things??

 

[oldmanofthesea]

I lived in Florida for a number of years and saw many of these impressive animals. I've dove and snorkeled with them. These huge gentle animals really do leave a lasting impression. Ron

 

[Tarac]

I've seen quite a few, they are really awesome to watch... from the shore... I have a friend who studies them and have had the chance to accompany her on a few of her survey trips over the winter. They congregate around nuclear power plants because the water is warmed all winter as a byproduct of the plant's cooling systems. They're much less gentle and more giant bumper-car-like when there are more than two or three lol. That's when you start to notice how big these things really are.

Sadly the artificially heated water has taught them to use these hot reservoirs to hide out during the sporadic cold snaps and as a result many of them no longer follow the normal migratory routes they took historically. When a plant goes down or is closed, all the manatees that have learned to over-winter nearby are killed by the cold. People (including my friend) are trying to teach them to migrate again since the fate of some of the reactors is unknown at this time.

 

[stingray]

Wow! Awesome pics of a fantastic trip. Looks like you had alot of fun!

 

[zonbonzovi]

Tarac- it's funny(not haha) how the cooling towers are spun as some sort of unintended environmental boon for the animals. There are a few companies patting themselves on the back for "saving" the manatee via cooling tower runoff. Pretty laughable considering these man-made structures rarely last longer than a few decades before inactivation.