Memphis Manatee Found Dead
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 12th, 2006
The out-of-place manatee, first seen the weekend of October 21-22, 2006, when fishermen spotted it in Wolf River Harbor, near Memphis, has been found dead.
According to the Associated Press:
Police spokesman Sgt. Vince Higgins said the manatee was discovered around 1:30 p.m. CDT (1930 GMT) [on Monday, December 11, 2006] at Lake McKellar, off the Mississippi River south of Memphis.
Cryptomundo reader Lou Jackson also sends info from the more detailed article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal for December 12, 2006. It notes the specifics of how the dead animal was found, on the north bank of the lake, about a mile off the Mississippi main channel:
They had seen alligators nearby this year, so the crew of the towboat Mary Wepfer made a point of checking out the pinkish-brown orb they noticed lying along the bank of McKellar Lake Monday morning.
A grim realization sank in as they approached.
As you got up close, you could tell what it was,” pilot Clyde Kitchin said.
In a discovery that dashed the hopes of wildlife officials and animal-lovers across the Mid-South, the towboat crew had found the corpse of the manatee that had wandered up the Mississippi River to Memphis earlier this fall.
There were no wounds on the manatee; it does not appear to have been hit by a boat. But it was undersized, although no exact cause of death is yet known. The Memphis Zoo will conduct a necropsy, although hopes of finding out much information are slim.
The Commercial Appeal sums up the sad story:
At the time the manatee disappeared, wildlife officials voiced hope that it would migrate far enough back down the Mississippi from Memphis to reach warm water.
On Monday, it became clear the animal never left the city’s welcoming — but ultimately fatal — embrace.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
If the manatee came from the FL area, does anyone have an idea of how it got to Memphis?
Sad times.
A number or years ago my dad, who lived in the Greater New Orleans area, told me that the EPA and LA Dept. of Ecology put a stop to dredging for clam shells in Lake Pontchartrain due to the dredging causing toxins in the sediments of the lake bed being released into the lake water resulting in very detrimental impacts to the aquatic life in the lake. Dad mentioned that as soon as the dredging ceased, life in the lake began to rebound faster than anyone had predicted and different aquatic life not seen in the lake system in many years began to return an flourish. Chalk one up for the environmentalists! Shortly before passing away in the summer of 2005, dad told me of a number of credible reports of manatees being spotted in Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas over the preceding few years. The general thinking was that these manatees had migrated up the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and into the lake system comprised of Lake Borgne to the east, Lake Pontchartrain in the center, and Lake Maurepas to the west. These lakes are connected to each other by the Rigolets and Manchac passes. The whole system connects with the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana – Mississippi border (Lake Borgne area). There is quite a bit of prime habitat to support populations of manatees in the surrounding marshes and swamps.
It would make sense if the manatees could find their way to this lake system from Florida, the manatees could also find their way into the Mississippi River Delta wetlands and thus move up river to the Memphis area.
I would suspect that the demise of the Memphis manatee was brought about by a combination of colder water temperatures and the subsequent seasonal decrease in aquatic vegetation necessary for their sustenance.
following food and warm currents up the Gulf Stream, more than likely. I’m waiting to see what happens to the OOP Manetee in the Hudson, I’m not sure where it was last spotted.
Nature has its way of doing things and when they are out of order it can be fatal.
How sad he never found his way back to wherever he belonged — and didn’t understand that the folks trying to capture him really did have his best interests at heart. I’m sure it was fun to see, but manatees simply don’t belong where it gets cold in the winter.
Manatees are warm-blooded, and seek out power plants and other sources of warm water when the weather turns cool here in Florida. As cold as the weather in Memphis has been, I’m amazed this one lasted this long with no shelter.
Bummer. I liked the name of the “Memphis Manatee”.
Unfortunately this happens a lot to animals that wander too far outside of their own habitat. Some animals can handle it batter than others, but from what I understand, manatees are not one of them. Shame what happened to the poor thing.
“Oh, the humanatee!”
Herbert Morrison, May 6, 1937