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06/09/2002 Entry: "Parable of the manatee"

We spent the day at Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park [Verdict: 10/10 for the park; 2/10 for vegetarian refreshments] and had a great time. Ruth was particularly taken with the manatees they have there.A volunteer warden at the park, who clearly loves the manatees, was extolling their virtues and wishing people were more like them. "They have no system of dominance in their social groups," he said, "and display no aggression to one another, or to anything else. They live on plants and have no natural enemies apart from man." You might expect such a passive creature to be a victim of more aggressive animals, but the warden had an interesting story:

A few years ago a 12 foot long 'gator found its way into the river. You might wonder how the manatees (there are 9) would cope with this. They did exactly as they did the last time we introduced a new member to the group - they went up to the 'gator, rolled over him, swam close by him, tossed him about a bit. They were playing, but the mean old 'gator didn't want to play and he got out as fast as he could.