Despite weighing upward of 1200 pounds, manatee bodies have relatively little fat to protect them from the cold. Anything below 68 degrees is a death sentence. The solution: an annual inland migration, to the warm waters of Florida’s natural springs at Silver Springs State Park.

Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species in the order Sirenia: the Amazonian manatee, the West Indian manatee, and the West African manatee.