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When you think of water in Florida, you're probably be thinking about tropical sandy beaches or maybe a water theme park.
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But there's actually a secret world out here that comes to life in the fresh water system.
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I'm here today at Blue Springs State Park in front of what they call the boil, an area of the park where millions of gallons of water bubble
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up from a spring warmed by the earth,
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keeping this spring a constant 72 degrees.
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Sounds great for me, but also to the manatees that call this place home.
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The constantly warm waters of Blue Springs State Park are a vital refuge for manatees in cold weather.
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Although they look large and chubby, these marine mammals, unlike whales, actually have very little blubber to keep them warm.
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So in the winter, when the temperature of the rivers drop, the manatees crowd into these warm springs, and the more wild ones there are,
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the better it is to release rescued orphans who've grown up in captivity.
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I'm joining Wayne Hartley from the Save the Manatee Club to do his daily headcount.
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There's animals in there since their birth, I've known them and they've grown to be huge and over 2,000 pounds.
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Wow. So this is your life.
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How long have you been researching these animals?
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About 44 years.
Do you think you'll ever stop?
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As long as I can roll a canoe over and go out. I'll keep at it.
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Well, let's get in that canoes.
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What do you say, buddy?
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All right, let's do it.
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Let's go see some manatees.
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Oh, here we go.
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Here we go. Oh, my goodness.
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A mother and a baby.
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Yeah. Oh, and another one down here.
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They didn't realize they're right here under us.
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They're lazy. They want to lay on the bottom and then nice warm water.
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Although the springs are warm there's no food in here.
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So later in the day, the manatees will head out into the rivers to forage and then return to sleep in the warm water.
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What is it about these manatees that you love so much?
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They're so peaceful.
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This one is especially large.
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That's Esther.
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Esther, you are huge.
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Some of them aren't moving very much.
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So are they ever just sleeping?
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That's what they do here most as they sleep and, you know, get warm, rest up.
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And of course, they do breathe.
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And so they need to breathe.
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How often, in fact, when you're watching them sound asleep about every 20 minutes.
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And I can see a lot of scarring on this one's back.
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That's how you are. This is how you got some real deep propeller scars on the far side.
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That's what it looks like. Yeah.
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Observing these manatees is amazing and a little tragic.
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Many are scarred from boating accidents.
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It's a serious problem that Marlin Perkins noticed decades ago.
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They're just the other side of the spring seat cowl back in the day.
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Manatees were nicknamed sea cows.
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These aquatic herbivores spend up to eight hours a day grazing on seagrass.
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One of our objectives is to see how many of the sea cows show propeller marks on their backs.
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Scars left by the slashing props of boats passing over them being hit by boats is just one of the threats to the endangered Florida manatee population of about 5,000 animals.
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In 2022, more than 800 died when much of their main food source seagrass was killed by an algal bloom.
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That is, a big male weighed 1,875 pounds.
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But that was years and years ago.
1,800 pounds.
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But then we've got some females. Well over 2,000.
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What do you think your count is?
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Oh, several hundred, I know that, but 493. The seasonally cooler Florida weather has drawn this gathering of wild manatee, to warm springs like this one,
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including survivors of boat strikes and other injuries that have become all too common.
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The growing number of injured and orphaned manatees has led to a network of zoos
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and aquariums dedicating extra resources to their care and rehabilitation.
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Today, I'm about to meet a manatee struck by a boat and my location.
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Well, it might just surprise you.
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We're here at the Columbus Zoo.
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Over a thousand miles from where manatees are normally found.
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Who's going to be coming through this gate?
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Well, hopefully, this is going to be Stubby.
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She's the matriarch of our program.
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Stubby is a big girl.
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Although she weighs approximately 2,000 pounds, she has an even bigger job.
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Stubby is a surrogate mother to orphaned babies that were rescued from around the country and brought here to heal.
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She was actually rescued in 1995.
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She was suffering from cold stress and then got hit by a boat.
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Oh, no.
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Come on, big girl.
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All right, let's go over to see if she'll come up to.
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Okay.
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Unusual name for a manatee. Why is the name stubby?
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Well, she came to us with that name.
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I can only assume it's because of her paddle, which is her tail.
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And if you take a look at that, she lost over 70% of it in the boat strike.
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You discovered something very special about Stubby when the orphans came in.
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Right? Yeah. Stubby is amazing.
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She loves the babies.
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They're kind of like a job to her when they first come in.
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They're so tired.
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And when they see Stubby coming in, you can feel everything.
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Relax and then go right up to her.
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So she not only relaxes them, she's then starting to foster them.
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Right? Oh, absolutely.
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Recently, Stubby gave one orphan named Squirrel a second chance at life.
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Manatee calves depend on their mothers for up to two years,
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learning essential survival skills and receiving nourishment for Squirrel.
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Stubby is her mother now.
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When Squirrel showed up, Squirrel was all of a sudden glued on top.
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Stubby like would not leave her back.
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Really?
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Squirrel was just, a bundle of nerves, and you can tell anytime they were too far apart.
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Squirrel would start freaking out.
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Stubby's mothering skills and affection are obvious by watching her.
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Columbus, who has discovered that the best way to rehabilitate manatees
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is to give these magnificent creatures the space to care for each other.
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There we go.
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What a good girl.
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Okay, she's ready for more.
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Now you can see right here. They have prehensile lips.
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Yeah.
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So they can each side of their face independently.
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I see.
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So what would she be pulling in? In there in the wild?
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Oh, they had over 70 different kinds of plants.
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Oh, we'll let her go on that. Hey, that was awesome.
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Yeah, that was incredible.
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I just shook hands with a manatee, I believe.
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Here's a biscuit.
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Hey, you.
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You mind if I save it for later?
Yeah, that's good by me.
