Manatees & Hippos, Say WHAT?!

Manatees. Did that word give you a little happy leap in your heart? Me, too. There is something about the gentle giants that seems to touch the fuzzy part in us all.

Doing research on where to visit during my time in Florida, I knew that I wanted to make sure I had ample opportunities to see manatees.

My first chance came when I went to Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park, but I’m getting a head of myself. The manatees come later.

Homosassa Springs isn’t a zoo, but as their website states, is filled with native Florida animals that are “unable to survive in the wild for various reasons . . . and are ambassadors for their species, promoting conservation through education.”

There is one exception to the “native” animal part: Lu (short of Lucifer), a 60-year-old African Hippopotamus.

As with a number of the more unique state parks in Florida, Homosassa Springs was once a tourist attraction housing exotic animals for viewing, later becoming a holding pen for animals trained to be used in film and television. When the spring was made into a state park, they planned to move all non-native animals out of state. This included Lu. However, the community held Lu so dear that they started a petition for him to remain. Because of the outcry, the governor name Lu an honorary Florida citizen, so he is now the only “Florida Hippopotamus” and is allowed to live out his days at the park.

If this makes you smile, then you need to visit Homosassa Springs, because many of the residents have little anecdotes about their personalities and lives. There's actually a bird there that could leave, but because he's in love with a bird who can't he is a permanent (If this doesn’t make you smile, then you are a robot….or you are devoid of your fuzzy part).

There is also a tinge of sadness because they are often there because of the actions of humans. The education piece of the wildlife park was prevalent throughout. It made me pause and consider how I interact with wild animals and helped me understand that when I’m in nature (land or water) I am in their home and I should treat it as such. I make it sound so serious (and a little sad), when the park was anything but.

Most of the animals had designated spaces, except the vultures. They were everywhere!

I’ve always been a little freaked out by them, but now I think they are so cool.

Did you know that their stomach acid is so strong that it can melt metal? The pH is .7!! (pH is rated on a scale of 0-14, human stomach acid is 2 and our blood is 7.4, if that helps those of you who don’t remember anything from high school chemistry, personally I have blocked out that traumatic time). Plus, their microbiome is totally kick-a**. So bacteria like the bubonic plague, anthrax, rabies, and hepatitis (to name a few) don’t stand a chance! Isn’t nature amazing! (I tend to geek out about learning new stuff, it’s kinda one of my things).

Another super interesting thing I learned was about the symbiotic relationships between burrowing owls and gopher tortoises. If you couldn’t guess by their names, these guys like holes in the ground. But if you’ve ever seen a owl, you know they aren’t exactly the “burrowing” kind. Instead, they chill in the holes made by their friend, the tortoise. So this is how they are housed at the wildlife park. I think that should be a new book series: Owl and Tortoise are Friends. I see a bestseller!

The park is chalk full of birds and reptiles and mammals. Wait, I promised you manatees, didn’t I?!

Oh, but first, I need to tell you about the Fishbowl. This park is one of Florida’s many parks that contains a freshwater spring. Most parks have swimming holes at their spring mouths, but since this is a wildlife park, they provide you with an amazing opportunity to see the aquatic wildlife that is drawn to the warm waters of the spring. Suspended above the mouth of the spring (that sound more dramatic than it is), there is “the Fishbowl.” But instead of the fish being in the bowl, the humans are in it, surrounded by aquatics animals. There were hundreds of fish surrounding the submerged room. I really did feel like I was the one being watched! It was wild.

Okay, you’ve been so patient. Now, about the Manatees.

There were five at the park. Three were permanent residents, one due to injury, the others because they lost their mothers so young that they hadn’t learned how to survive in the wild. The others were there recovering from cold-shock.

Don’t be concerned that they are all crammed into the tiny space in the picture. They are there by choice. The volunteer feeding them said that they had the whole spring river available to them, and they could go there at any time, but for some reason they all wanted to be there. I watched her feed them three cases of romaine! If memory serves, she said that they each eat 72-84 heads per day. That’s seriously a lot of lettuce!

Watching them eat was mesmerizing. It actually reminded me of watching Benjamin eat his veggies, little jaw chomping and cheeks waggling.

The variety of animals they had at the park speaks to the diversity of Florida. When they have a black bear and alligators, eagles and herons, manatees and deer, there’s really nothing that would surprise me if you said they were native to Florida.