Blue Spring State Park Manatee Pictures

The park is a very popular tourist destination; you can go hiking, wildlife watching, fishing camping, kayaking, canoeing, SCUBA diving and swimming. Humans aren't the only ones who enjoy the spring tho'. Blue Spring is a designated Manatee Refuge and the winter home to a growing population of West Indian Manatees.

West Indian Manatees are large, gray aquatic mammals with bodies that are fat in the middle but taper to a flat, paddle-shaped tail. They have two flippers, wrinkled faces with whiskers on their snouts and are so ugly they're cute. The average adult manatee is about 10 feet long and weighs between 800 and 1,200 pounds.

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