A manatee finds its way into a South Florida community lake. How did it get there?
A critter in a South Florida lake, manmade or otherwise, is not unusual. After all, we’re surrounded by water.
Still, the sight of a manatee in a manmade lake in the Cedarwoods community of Pembroke Pines after the Fourth of July holiday bemused some of the residents, according to a WPLG Local 10 report.
“I grew up with manatees,” neighbor Bill Barnett told the station on Friday after seeing the manatee a week or so ago in June. According to the station, the lake contains fish and turtles. Manatees, a gentle creature, not so much. “This is the first one we’ve seen on the lake. I’ve been here like 15 years.”
Manatees, a protected marine mammal, generally live along coastal waters and bays and lakes in fresh, saline and brackish warm waters, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
These herbivores feed on aquatic vegetation like sunlight-nourished seagrass and submerged and floating plants, and can find their way into bodies of water like the Cedarwoods community lake via storm drains and surrounding canals. The wildlife commission will relocate a distressed or unhealthy manatee but this one, according to the WPLG report, seems to be OK.
The Herald reached out to the FWC and a Florida marine professor for comment.
