Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/23/curious-manatee-gets-very-frie.html
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That manatee was like a huge senior kitty… although blubbery.
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“Finally! This $2000 canoe let me capture a cool experience!”
Very cool animal!
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Dude, you’re on his turf.
Be thankful the big guy was just feeling curious and not threatened.
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Manatees are very much the opposite of, say, hippos, in that they pose zero threat to humans (unless you’re so distracted by a manatee, you pilot your boat into something). They’re about the most placid, un-dangerous creatures ever. Which is common for a creature with no natural predators, but weird because they live around alligators. Apparently alligators won’t bother them - to the point where, if an alligator is in the way of a manatee, it just swims up to the reptile and gives it a nudge or gently pushes it aside. That, apparently, is manatees at their most aggressive. Manatees can’t even bite - their teeth are so far back in their mouths, biologists who study them say you’d have to stick your arm pretty well into its mouth before there was any danger of it. Reportedly they can move with some speed when startled, but still aren’t implicated in capsizing even small boats.
So the only danger in human-manatee interactions is in hurting the manatee, directly or indirectly. Which unfortunately happens a lot.
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I once encountered a manatee at a Florida springs while swimming. They poop…a lot. They are delightful creatures.
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No such thing, IMO.
I leave the wild animals well enough alone; all the better for them, all the better for us humans.
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Maybe manatee thinks there should be a salad in the clear plastic container?
Btw, there was a big cold-water manatee/dugong, but we killed them and ate them all (be warned, this article was proofread by a parakeet):
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Once a few years ago I was kayaking near Naples FL and spotted a commotion in the water. I paddled over to find at least 3 manatees gettin jiggy. Hoping they didn’t see my yak as a potential mate I cleared off asap and left them to it.
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I’ve been on snorkeling tours of the freshwater springs they overwinter in. Before getting in the water the guides lectured us very sternly about how they were endangered and not to harass them.
As soon as we were in the water they were crowding around asking for pets and scratches. Which can be a bit alarming when the animal gently nudging your hand for pets is the size of a vw minibus.
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So silly. Manatees don’t wear top hats.
In their case, it really does seem to be true. (You’re right in that is almost never the case with animals.) Which is part of the problem - people abuse them, with no (immediate) repercussions. Florida Man has been known to put his kids on the animals to ride them (despite it being illegal to even touch them), because they’re so gentle. They make capybaras look ill-tempered by comparison. Definitely the better for them to be left alone, though, given that they’re going extinct. (And thus, indirectly, better for humans to leave them alone, too.)
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Oh The Cute Manatee!
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I like to think of them as an aquatic variant of the wub.
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Every once in awhile you hear about some idiot who’s operating a boat too fast in places you really shouldn’t, hitting a manatee and dying a firey death.
Which just underlines what you’re saying. A manatee is about as dangerous to a human as a sunken tree or a sandbar. And in exactly the same way.
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Oh, they’re implicated all right. Kayaks and small sailboats have been overturned by manatees. My tribe mates have experienced this first hand. The typical situation involves a quiet approach in skinny water at night. Boat meets manatee with an unexpected bump and manatee freaks out. Boat goes over and manatee bugs out.
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Oh, the huge manatee!
(Typing that felt so inevitable it was almost like shouting, “Mournington Crescent!”)
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