Florida wildlife affected by cold weather

If you’re not a snowbird you’re probably going to spend this week shivering.

Like Floridians, manatees also don’t like the cold.

“Yes, it does feel cold,” said visitor Marissa Coman. “Where I’m from in Alaska, even in the cold days, it’s not like bone-chilling. This humidity makes it a lot colder.”

Coman, and manatees, traveled to Manatee Park in Fort Myers to warm up.

“These animals, can’t live in water under 70 degrees. It’ll kill them. 68 technically,” said Ranger Rob Howell, a nature educator at Manatee Park. “They need to find warm water naturally.”

These animals huddle up underwater while humans bundle up on land.

“There’s tons,” said Coman. “If I had to just guess, I don’t know… maybe 100.”

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission wants to remind you about how this cold weather impacts our wildlife. Both above and below the surface!

“They joke about cold temperatures ‘it’s going to start raining iguanas’, [but] that’s not a joke,” said Howell. “If it gets too cold, their metabolism shuts down, they can’t move, and they will literally fall out of the trees. So it is something that these animals aren’t adapted to, if they’re not from here.”