Manatees

I love this little passage by Barbara Behrendt describing manatees and their behavior at the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, Florida, USA.

'Sometimes likened to huge potatoes with flippers, the homely grayish brown herbivores will playfully push their stiff whiskers into swimmers' face masks or barrel-roll for belly scratches.'

From November 2007, Smithsonian magazine, page 28.