Featured Image Credit:SouthFloridaMuseum
Snooty the manatee joined an elite club this week when he officially became a Guinness World Record holder.
What’s his new record holding title? Well it’s not the world’s cutest manatee, although we would certainly put him in our record book, but he is the world’s oldest living manatee in captivity. On July 23rd, Snooty celebrated his 68th birthday!
The mature (pronounce: ma-tour, with your pinky out) manatee was born in captivity in 1948, and then brought to the South Florida Museum in 1949. To give some pop-culture perspective, the film Easter Parade premiered with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire that very same year. Also, Alice Copper, Olivia Newton-John, James Taylor, Samuel L. Jackson, and Prince Charles were also welcomed into the world. Basically, Snooty was born to be a star. Shine bright Snooty. Shine bright.
Currently, Snooty spends his days training the manatee rehabilitation staff and teaching them the art of eating lettuce. Apparently, it only costs $50 a day to feed Snooty. Over the years, the personable manatee has been a surrogate to more than 30 manatees going through the rehabilitation process.
Marilyn Margold, the museum’s Director of Living Collections, said the facility applied for the world record to help educate people about manatees and their perceived life expectancy. On average, a manatee can live to be over 30 years old in the wild. Why is their life span so much shorter in the wild? This might be hard to hear, but manatees have no known natural predators, which means that humans and boats are to blame.
The crushing impact of a watercraft’s hull on a manatee is painfully common. These collisions cause the manatee to become stranded and makes it very difficult to breathe. If the gnarly propeller wounds or internal injuries aren’t the COD, then a deadly water parasite is typically to blame.
While Snooty has been “hand-fed” for the majority of his life, his far exceeding life span certainly makes a statement about the species potential. Florida’s manatee population is actually seeing a recent increase, thanks to protections efforts and being listed as Endangered by the ICUN. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the ICUN’s listing is the equivalent to the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) category of “threatened.”
Way to go gang!
Want to see Snooty in all of his lettuce-eating glory? You can watch him live on the Snooty Cam.