FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Manatees started eating lettuce being offered to them by wildlife officers this week, in the first success of an unprecedented effort to prevent another season of starvation.
The effort to feed them began in November near the Florida Power & Light plant in the Indian River Lagoon. But it took place without any known success until Thursday, when a group of manatees appeared to consume about 450 pounds of bibb and romaine lettuce.
“We had a couple at the site who decided they were going to try the produce as food source and found it palatable,” said Ron Mezich, imperiled species management section leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in a conference call Friday with reporters. “And once they started eating, that was the trigger for the other animals.”
