Memphis Manatee Found Dead

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.

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.

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.

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.

Loren Coleman 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.

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