Today found us at the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. What an awesome place! We stumbled upon it by accident while passing through Clearwater, Florida. It had a gigantic paper mache manatee in front, so of course I demanded we stop. When we went inside we found that it was actually a visitor center for Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. The entrance fee was only $13.00, and I had always wanted to see a manatee, so we jumped on it. From the visitor center we hopped on a passenger boat that took us on a 20 minute ride up Pepper Creek. The entire park was run by elderly volunteers whose passion and sense of fun was quite contagious. The guide drove the boat up the creek while cracking jokes and pointing out wildlife. We saw several turtles and some beautiful wood ducks in their nests.
When we arrived at the park itself we sat down for a short presentation about manatees. Homosassa Springs is world famous for being "Nature's Fishbowl". The water is clear as air and stays at a constant 72 degrees farenheit year round. Because of this, massive schools of fish congregate in the waters and swim in lazy circles. The manatees, who normally live in the sea grass beds in the ocean, come in for the warmth because cold water will kill them. They have zero sense of natural aggression and are quite curious, so if you snorkel with them they will swim up and feel you with stiff whiskers.
Volunteers go out in kayak the shallow waters to count the wild manatees and look for sick or injured animals. One of the volunteers proudly proclaims she has the best job in the world with a smile that said more than words ever could.
I personally fall a little in love with the manatees myself. They look like giant grey footballs full of jello, with big flat tails and wisened old faces. They aren't terribly quick or coordinated, and their preferred method of stopping seems to be to just bumble into whatever object is in front of them. They have a huge body percentage dedicated to lung, and they can stay underwater for up to 20 minutes when resting. We watch them eat lettuce with their prehensile upper lip, using their adorable little flippers to push food into their mouth when it floats away. I can't help but giggle at their well natured, bumbling antics.
After the manatees we stroll around the rest of the park, which includes a reptile house and a shore bird aviary. My favorite part about this park is that they only have animals and plants that are native to Florida! The one exception is a 6,000 lb hippopotamous named Lu. Apparently the Governor of Florida made him an honorary citizen to prevent him from being put down!
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| No, really, come closer. I don't bite! Hehehhe.... |
This little guy was begging for treats and was quite curious about Dave's camera.
The flamingos were funny to watch. They looked like muppets or hand puppets! They milled around in constantly moving stately circles with their noses in the air, squawking and honking loud enough to raise the dead. They all look quite dignified, disgruntled spoiled socialites.
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