DR. MANATEE ……
full text…Miami Herald 6/9/09…
‘LAUDERDALE-BY-THE-SEA
10 manatees make a love connection on the beach
A female manatee became the object of nine males’ desire when she made a nighttime visit to shallow waters off the beach.
A leading candidate for Florida’s sexiest female found herself surrounded by an adoring throng when she made a surprise nighttime visit to the beach in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
As she lay on the sand under a full moon, cameras flashed, the media swooped in, and someone called police and the fire department, hoping they could restore order.
The belle of the night Sunday was a 1,000-plus-pound manatee. And she was so attractive, officials said, that she was surrounded by nine virile manatee males.
”This was quite the sight,” said Jerry McIntee, deputy chief of the town’s volunteer fire department.
“There are what, 1,000 manatees in Florida? We have a hundredth of them right on the beach.”
The manatees appeared around high tide at 9 p.m. Thinking the volunteer firefighters would have to shepherd the sea cows back to the water, McIntee started assembling lights and nets.
”We had our hearts in our stomachs,” McIntee said. “We thought we might lose 10 manatees on our beach.”
He called a marine biologist and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
They advised him to let sea cows be sea cows, and let nature take its course.
It turned out this lady sea cow had been peacefully swimming north.
As she swam, one male manatee started to holler at her. She kept going. More male manatees followed. By 9 o’clock, the persistance of the nine won out.
In the moonlight, near crashing waves, they made love to her as dozens of people watched. And after the tide went out, so did the manatees.
Why did so many males choose this manatee? First of all, there aren’t that many manatees left — with estimates between 1,000 and 3,000 in the entire state.
Second, McIntee said, males chose her because she was larger and had wider hips than most females.
Manatee males, it seems, like ‘em voluptuous.’
BC- We hear VM Manatee was on the radio night before last around 2:30 telling Dispatch there was a beached manatee and he was told to leave it…He said that there would probably be lots of calls…and any further calls just contact the Chief…over and out!
“Thinking the volunteer firefighters would have to shepherd the sea cows back to the water, McIntee started assembling lights and nets.”
But a purported call to the real manatee experts resulted in a “cease and desist” to the Deputy Chief….
Guess the Manatees feel just like many residents in LBTS back off and “just let them alone!”….
So who is doing the P.R. ?….
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/1088403.html
Tags: Local Politics, news. manatees, Scoops
