Meeting manatees at Bradenton museum, Florida

I’m not sure how old I was when I first came across manatees. At least my twenties, I’m sure. After all, it’s not as if you find them everywhere in the UK (cat, dog, cow, sheep, manatee. Er).

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But thanks to the faintly surreal Sarah & Duck on CBeebies, one of my daughter’s favourite shows, she’s known about and been fascinated by ‘sea cows’ for ages. Who says kids’ TV isn’t educational.

So I’d guessed one of the highlights of our trip to Florida’s Gulf coast would be seeing manatees at Bradenton museum – what was then called the South Florida Museum, now the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton city.

Not any old manatees either, this was a chance to meet Snooty – the oldest manatee living in captivity. [EDIT: Sadly Snooty died two years after our visit, two days after his 69th birthday – the museum continues to rehabilitate sick and injured manatees]

A venerable 67, he was born and has lived in captivity his whole life, outliving his wild cousins by a good decade or so, although there are currently three baby manatees joining him as part of the conservation work done by the museum’s Parker Aquarium.

But time to backtrack a little. From our temporary home on Anna Maria Island, the museum itself is back on the mainland, just by the aptly named Manatee River. Within the site, there’s a planetarium, the aquarium and a museum covering world and Florida history, both natural and cultural.

And we got a little tour by Jeff Rodgers, director of education and director of the museum’s Planetarium, who talked us through some of the exhibits and plans for the future.

Most excitingly of all, we started with a behind-the-scenes chance to meet Snooty. Up close, you can see how manatees are (distantly) related to elephants – just extend that whiskery snout into a trunk, swap the flippers for legs…

Although when we also got a chance to see a manatee skeleton, the bones under the flippers aren’t a million miles from human.

Snooty, meanwhile, was hungry. This is not unusual. He goes through 70-80lbs of vegetables every day (and fruit when he can get it – his birthday cake was strawberries and pineapple). 

Eyes staring beseechingly at the staff looking after him, he hauled himself up by his flippers optimistically looking for another lettuce leaf.

He got it too, courtesy of Minnie, who was part dazzled part alarmed by a manatee in reality. Just one leaf, though, no matter how affectionately he nuzzled at people’s elbows. I never knew how unexpectedly cute a 1,000lb sea cow could be!

Quirky manatee fact? Like humans, whose nose and ears never stop growing (hence old men with great big noses), their tails continue to get bigger throughout their life.

The rest of the small aquarium is fascinating too: touch pools with tiny animals in, including a very shy hemit crab who bravely popped out and very swiftly vanished back, tanks with corals and fish, not least a clown fish hiding in his anemone.

Then we darted from underwater to outer space. The planetarium with its rather great reclining seats has special showings aimed at kids, showing an alien family looking for somewhere to vacation in our solar system.

Minnie’s tolerance for space is not as high as for animals, and I wasn’t convinced she’d sit through the entire showing, short though it is.

We made it as far as Saturn before we had to make a surreptitious exit. Ah well.

Then back to history. The museum starts with a gigantic mastodon, complete with likely soundtrack, as well as the ferociously large jaws of a prehistoric shark, along with rooms focusing on Florida’s wildlife.

The small model bear was unexpectedly lifelike when spotted out of the corner of your eye.

Separate rooms follow human history, from early cultures through the settling of the state and Bradenton’s confident renaming, the land of your heart’s desire. Sounds good right? If you’ve seen my photos, I can’t argue.

Then into the Discovery room, the hands-on part of the museum. They have plans for a purpose-built interactive kids’ section to replace it, hopefully within a few years, as the fascinating artefacts are currently crammed into a relatively small space.

Minnie could happily have spent a long time poking, prodding and playing with magnets. I was pretty enthralled by some of the beautiful fossils.

Then there’s a piece of history which really doesn’t seem that remote: dial telephones among the old technology to explore. Or perhaps I am ancient without having noticed. (Don’t answer that).

It goes to prove how absorbing it all was that we only left at about 2pm. Minnie hadn’t noticed that lunchtime had been and gone, but I was ready for her to announce she was ravenous any second, so I finally persuaded her to leave.

The one thing the museum does seem to be missing is a cafe. However, Corwin’s Ice Cream & Smoothies is just out back. I recommend the peanut butter fudge!

I also recommend eating it VERY quickly, as the Sunshine State was living up to its name and I could barely lick mine up fast enough. Minnie was lightly coated in mint choc chip and her cone dissolved in protest.

So we headed along the RiverWalk which starts at the bridge here to find the splash park and cool down.

Stretching for a mile and a half, there’s also a skate park, various chairs and loungers outside, a tidal discovery zone (slightly forlorn in the heat so we didn’t find too much to discover) and all kinds of unexpected waterfront additions.

With two play areas next to the splash park, that’s where we stayed. A couple of older kids were having huge fun running through the fountains while Minnie cautiously approached a few sprays around the edge, screaming hysterically and gleefully whenever a drop fell on her. 

I rather wished I could go in with her.

Three days later, she was still talking about Snooty. We came home with our own furry stuffed version…

Need to know: Manatees at Bradenton Museum

Tickets to The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature cost $23.95 for adults, $14.95 for children aged four to 12, and $8.95 for ages two to four. Under two are free. There’s also free parking next to the museum.

There are extra activities on Family Nights on the first Saturday of most months, and events throughout the day at the museum/planetarium/aquarium.

The museum is closed on Mondays but is open from 10am to 5pm on other days (12-5pm on Sundays). Check the full opening times here.

For more Florida inspiration, including the best beaches in Florida with kids, check out my other posts

Disclosure: My trip to Bradenton and entry to the museum were courtesy of Visit Bradenton and the South Florida Museum. All opinions, including on manatees and CBeebies, are my own.

Main image courtesy of Bradenton Area CVB, all other images copyright MummyTravels

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