January 28, 2004

9:17 p.m.

Man, Oh Manatee

Tampa

I could hardly sleep. I got about 4-1/2 hours, but after 4:30 it was pretty much over for me, aside from an occasional doze.

We arose, pre-dawn, to get to the wildlife park by 8:00. Last night there was a light freeze, so it was still very chilly when we arrived. The first person we met was the blond woman we saw last year giving the manatee presentation and feeding them in the water. There were several other young volunteers handy � the contained manatees (those they keep in a safe area because they've been injured and so forth) number perhaps seven or eight, so it takes four or five people to manage the feeding � and the woman asked us, "Did you bring your wetsuits?" We looked at her blankly until our host, Laura, chimed in, "Art told us he'd have wetsuits for us!" and fortunately they did, inside a small and slightly warmer building.

It's difficult to eyeball a wetsuit and tell if it's going to fit. They're supposed to be snug, but the full-length ones go on like a tube, so you don't know until you've struggled with it a while whether it's going to be too small. We had our swimsuits on, and the wetsuit goes on over that. The idea (if you've never worn one) is that, rather than keeping the water out, they let it through but then it warms against the body, and insulates against the water outside. There ensued, then, about twenty hilarious minutes of the three of us trying to find suitable suits, squeezing into claustrophobically tight ones, or clownish baggy ones � I finally was handed an almost correct size, one with long legs and a tank style top, although the top half was too tall, so there was all this baggage around my shoulders and chest. Then someone else handed me another suit to go over it � no legs, just a sort of body suit but with long sleeves � and suggested I'd be warmer with two layers. I squeezed myself and my largish undersuit into it, zipped up, and had a past life memory of Victorian proportions, spent in corsets. Then the booties, zipped up the insides, and we walked out in the cold to the waterside.

They were waiting for us already! They were huge and hungry!

We were handed buckets of largish pellets � vitamins, protein, condensed stuff � and told to wade out with them and feed them a couple at a time to whichever manatees were closest. We each took charge of two or three manatees. They don't have teeth � they have sort of ridgy gums inside, but there's no danger of being bitten. Their snouts are whiskery and rough. The elephant is their closest relative, and they're much like trunkless, earless elephants. And they were hungry. If we dawdled, they'd bump up against us, or lift their noses out of the water and smack! them down, splashing us. Chris said one came up to him and grabbed his leg with its big finny arms, pulling at him impatiently. We were told that sometimes they roll over and ask to have their bellies scratched, but there was no rolling today, only serious munching.

One had an injury on its tail, and a vet had to put some antibiotic ointment on the spot. Their backs were slick with algae, which sometimes must be cleaned off. Another had a large indentation in its back, perhaps where it had been caught in a culvert and had to wait for the next tide to be freed. Some others had obvious scars from boat propeller injuries.

The water there is spring fed, a constant 72 degrees year round. Needless to say, it was a lot warmer than the air, and once in, it was hard to come out. But eventually we ran out of pellets, and the manatees left us for the "salad bar," where they get their second course. We walked shivering back to the building, changed back into our real clothes (Laura couldn't get out of her suit and was getting panicky; she was lying on the floor tugging at it, and Chris had to grab the leg ends and practically pull her across the floor to get it off. Very amusing) and headed for the vegetable cart!

Our blond friend had loaded a huge cart with restaurant quality, fresh, gorgeous romaine lettuce, cabbages and kale. Manatees in the wild eat aquatic plants galore, and they LOVE their greens. With increasingly icy hands we tossed the veggies over the railing into a sort of large inflated rectangle, under which the manatees can swim to retrieve them. She instructed us to throw the cabbage halves first, before they all gathered; otherwise we'd be hitting them on their heads. We threw everything into the enclosure, and then went downstairs to the viewing area where we could see them underwater, swimming with their prizes and chased by fish (who seemed to have cultivated a taste for cabbage).

It was still pretty cold, but we walked through the rest of the park, gawking at huge birds, owls and eagles, storks and egrets and ibis and flamingos, and cougars and a hippo and a few foxes. During our activities the park actually opened, but we didn�t see many visitors braving the chill.

Laura took a video of us feeding the beasties, and several still photos, which she'll send to us later. I have a few pics of them through the underwater glass, a couple of which actually came out clearly. I'll put them up next week when I'm home and at leisure. It almost wasn't enough, just what we did; I couldn't grasp it; their size and their story and their state; I wanted to get down on my knees and roll around with them (no, they're HUGE, I'm telling you � they could slowly mow you down without a hint of malice); they're so docile and defenseless and beautiful. And I had my hands on them. As the last one slowly swam off, I rubbed his slippery back over and over, down to the end of the tail, and said goodbye. I feel like I should have done more.