National Parks Traveler Podcast | Save the Manatee

Manatees are some of the most unusual looking wildlife creatures that you’ll find in coastal units of the National Park System, places like Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and Cumberland Island National Seashore.    They are huge – the largest on record reportedly tipped the scales at 3500 pounds and was 13 feet long – and rather bulbous looking.    But manatees are also an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. There are many threats to manatees along the Southeastern coastline of the United States, from power boaters to shrinking shorelines, and even climate change impacts.   To learn more about these interesting mammals and the struggles they face to build their populations, we’re joined today by Tiare Fridlich, a manatee biologist with the Save the Manatee Club.