Snooty the manatee is celebrating a big birthday. He's turning 65, making him the oldest manatee in captivity and possibly the oldest ever. To celebrate the occasion, the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, where Snooty lives, is holding a free party on Saturday.
"If you lived in a pool where people gave you a bath and fed you lettuce by hand and you had no other predators and the water was always a nice warm temperature, you'd be living long too," Brynne Anne Besio, executive director of the South Florida Museum told the Canadian Press. "He's protected, he's safe, he has a great diet, he has regular medical care, and so he's got all the odds for him in terms of living long."
Despite being 65, Snooty is in good health. He lives in a diet of about 80 pounds of lettuce and vegetables every day to sustain his 1,000 pound body. Snooty lives in a tank with two smaller manatees that are being rehabilitated for cold stress.
Snooty is quite the ham and is loving the media attention.
"He loves cameras," said Marilyn Margold, the museum's aquarium director. Marigold said he gets right up and close to cameras and puts on a big of a show.
The animal has been a great specimen for researchers to learn about and for conservation reasons.
"Every year we celebrate a birthday for Snooty, it sets a new records as far as the aging potential for manatees," Robert Bonde, a research biologist and manatee expert for the United States Geological Survey in Gainesville told CP.
According to Bonde, the oldest wild manatee carcass found was 53 years old.
Manatees don't live very long due to man-made threats and environmental problems like cold weather. On average, a manatee lives to be 13.
Bonde believes that Snooty and other manatees could live that long in the wild if they weren't up against threats like boat propellers.
"It's tough to be a manatee in Florida," Bonde said.
Manatees are related to elephants and dugongs, a manatee-like creature that lives in the waters near Australia and Bonde said manatees could live just as long as these animals.
Since Snooty is so old, some think that the museum has simply been replacing him over the years, but officials say he's the real deal.
"That was a popular thing to do years ago: if you lose one marine mammal, you'd get another one and just give it the same name," said Margold. "In our particular case, it's not true. Snooty has two scars on his side from some abscesses that were removed over 30 years ago, and that's a real strong identification. Also he has a very predominant tail. And those two things are giveaways that it's the same Snooty."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
