We had visited here many years ago (photos taken with film!) and really enjoyed it. We traveled north on I-75 for just under two hours and were not disappointed. The park is home to native Florida wildlife, including the West Indian manatee. The facility is a manatee rehab center and a rescue site for injured birds that cannot survive in the wild. We were greeted in the parking lot by a local ambassador. Once we exited the visitor center we loaded into a pontoon boat which transported us down Pebble Creek to the exhibit areas. It was a chilly day, but most of the animals were out ... if only to soak up the sun. The wood duck waded along the shore of the creek. This alligator was one of four that we saw in the alligator lagoon.
We followed the Wildlife Walk boardwalk around the perimeter of the park. The red fox was laying in a sunny spot. Owls kept their suspicious eyes on us. The flamingos glowed in the afternoon light. This bald eagle had lost his right wing, but was just as majestic as the ones we saw on the inland rivers.
Birds were the easiest to photograph as the black bears, panthers, bobcats, and deer were all behind chain link fences that messed up the shot. This gray squirrel expertly demonstrated its famous Position of Indecision, which is often executed in the middle of the road, leading to its untimely demise.
As with most animal parks, they insist on a snake exhibit. Despite the warnings and my disdain for the critters, we went in anyway ... at least they were behind glass. The rattlesnake was interesting. The final two exhibits were the stars of the park. Lu, the hippopotamus, was having a great time in his pond blowing water at the folks on the boardwalk.
He also did several barrel rolls in the middle of the pool. Lu, is the oldest hippopotamus in the United States, and has been a resident in the area since it was an exotic wildlife park way back when. He was made a citizen of Florida so that he would qualify to remain in the native species park when the state of Florida assumed control. His 59th birthday is coming up on June 28 and he has his own Facebook page. Everyone wants to be like Lu.
The final area was the freshwater spring which produces millions of gallons of fresh, crystal-clear water every hour. The outflow creates the Homosassa River which holds a year-round temperature of 72 degrees. This warm water is what attracts the manatees. From the elevated viewing station we could see many groups floating lazily in the current.
Although they rarely surface higher than their nostrils, there was one that came out to photobomb us. The underwater observatory allowed us to view the huge schools of fish along with an occasional manatee. We finished back at the visitor center and were bordering on being cold. We obviously failed to remember that 60 degrees when cloudy and breezy does produce goosebumps. Oh well, the car's heater quickly defrosted us. On the way back to Palmetto, we stopped at an orange grove and walked along the rows of juice oranges. We had seen several tractor trailers carrying loads of oranges, but I had never seen oranges on a tree. The trees were actually much shorter than I had imagined, but were all full of fruit. There was a stand on-site selling oranges and navel oranges out of bins pulled off the tractor bed.
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