What an incredible mammal. Manatees are large marine mammals
weighing up to 2000 pounds and reaching more than 12 feet in length. Like whales, their large bodies can only be supported in their watery environment. On land, their body weight would crush their internal organs.
Manatees are the only marine mammals that are herbivores. Just to keep their big bodies warm, they have to eat up to one tenth of their body weight every day. For the typical manatee that means more than 100 pounds of water plants! That's equal to more than 200 heads of lettuce!
Manatees are well suited to their slow aquatic life. They have flexible front limbs that they use to steer as they swim. They can also use these limbs to hold their food. Their body ends with a large paddle shaped tail. 
With powerful up and down strokes, they use their tail to push them through the water. Usually they move along at 3 to 5 miles per hour, but when frightened, they can move more quickly.Like all mammals, manatees breathe air. As a marine mammal, they must rise to the surface to take a breath. While resting this happens every 20 minutes, but when they are active, they need to take a breath every 3 to 5 minutes.
We took a Pontoon boat cruise with Rivers Safaris and it was fantastic to see all the Manatees in the wild. After a short break for lunch at the Old Town Tiki Bar we headed for the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. What a wonderful place with manatees, a hippopotamus, black bears, many types of birds (flamingos!), owls and reptiles etc.
On the way we stopped and looked at the old sugar mill that was here in the early 1800's.
That was another spot where you can feel the ghosts of the slaves who worked there. 
After supper tonite Rick and I went for a walk around the Turtle Creek RV Park we are at and decided that this also is a place we could come back to for a quiet, peaceful holiday.
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