South Florida Museum in West Central Florida

One of the places I visited on my bonus rain-free Saturday was the South Florida Museum. They have a very eclectic collection of things, which should probably be spread out over about five other museums, but it was interesting because it was free! There is a deal going on where the Selby family has created a plan to allow free admissions on Saturdays in June to many of the local attractions to help promote philanthropism. I don't know how it's expected to work, but it gets me into places free, so I'm not complaining. I'm trying to visit all the places that are free, and I'll report on them here. The South Florida Museum is the only one I'm aware of that I hadn't been to before, except for Gee Whiz, which is a children's museum, and I don't know how excited I am about going there...

Probably the most impressive thing on display at the museum was the mastadon skeleton shown above. Turns out that it's just a cast of the real thing, but what did I expect for free admission. The original skeleton was dug up from the bottom of a river south of Tallahassee back in the sixties, and is one of the largest ever found. Pretty impressive to look at, believe me.

Not quite as old as the mastadon skeleton, but heading that way fast, is Snooty the manatee. Snooty is a local celebrity of sorts, having been in Bradenton longer than some 90% of the other folks living here. He was born in captivity back in the forties, and has called Bradenton home ever since. Snooty is the one eating romaine lettuce from his keeper above. The other two manatees are orphans that are being raised in the tank with Snooty, and they will eventually be released back into the wild. Snooty will probably never leave this tank. He is the oldest manatee in the world, having more than doubled the lifespan of manatees in the wild. Scientists are eagerly watching him to see how long he hangs in there.