Happy birthday, Snooty

Last week, our resident manatee, Snooty, celebrated his 58th birthday. Snooty is a west Indian manatee who resides at the Parker Aquarium in the South Florida museum in Bradenton. Nearly 4,000 people came out to help thefamous manatee celebrate the occasion.

Snooty was born in captivity at the Miami Aquarium as "Baby Snoots" on July 21, 1948. He came to Bradenton with his mother as part of a manatee exhibit during the 1949 DeSoto Celebration. When his mother was released back into the wild, Snooty was forced to remain in an aquarium because he had always been hand-fed and did not know how to survive on his own.

When the Miami Aquarium closed, Snooty came to Bradenton permanently. His first home was a small pool and then a larger tank was built in the museum. Even then he became crowded for space. Whenever we took our first graders on a field trip to the museum, seeing Snooty was the highlight of the trip. We wanted to touch him so badly, but that was forbidden because of the spread of germs.
In 1993 a 60,000 gallon pool with upper and lower viewing areas, a medication pool and deep and shallow water for feeding opened at the museum and became Snooty's most recent and most elaborate place of residence.
I wrote about "Cows on Parade" in Chicago. When I flew home to Tampa, before going to get my bags and getting my car, I went up to get a bite to eat. On display in the airport were these manatees. They are similar to what the cows were like in Chicago. AC wrote that her town had bears all over the place.
The manatee is the gentle giant of the waters in Florida. Wild manatees are docile creatures whose survival has been threatened by boats and red tide. Last year, the Florida Fish and Wild Life Commission reported 225 manatees died in Florida. Watercraft accounted for 50 of those deaths and another 80 deaths were from red tide.

I live in Manatee County. I graduated from Manatee High School. At one time I had a "Save the Manatee" license plate. I had it for about 10 years, in fact; then I changed it to "Choose Life", the plate that promotes adoption.

During the winter when the water is cold, groups of manatees can be seen at the power plants that are near the water, enjoying the warmth given off.

I took some of this information from a newspaper article in our local paper. To see some photographs of actual manatees, go to this website.