Necessities can be keys to forming new friendships, an orphaned baby manatee learned earlier this month.1 Maybe there is also a lesson for us humans.
“Keys” refers to the Florida Keys, the string-like archipelago of islands that trail southwardly below the south peninsula of Florida’s mainland. The Florida Keys have been physically connected since 1912—first by railway bridges, then in 1928 for automobile traffic.2
Being islanders, residents of the Keys often visit their docks. And it’s not unusual for sea creatures to visit shorelines near docks. Likewise, it’s not a big surprise for a manatee to be spotted under a boat dock. But this one needed help.
Manatees are sirenians (like dugongs), marine mammals that are torpedo-shaped and massive. They are somewhat like cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and pinnipeds (seals and walruses). These are all accustomed to eating aquatic vegetation in tidal coastwaters.3
Manatees are vegetarian, eating sea plants such as water hyacinth and hydrilla, two prolific “pest plants” that clog and choke waterways. Manatees can swim quickly over short distances, propelling themselves with undulations (like a caterpillar), using flippers and tail to steer and stabilize. They are primarily nocturnal creatures.3
This baby manatee was rescued at the Key Islamorada, which is about an hour south of Miami.1,2 What happened to the baby manatee after she was rescued?
Stresses of all sorts are unavoidable in this mortal life, but at least in the case of the orphaned manatee infant at Islamorada, there is a fairly happy ending to the story: a successful rescue followed by an adoption-like new beginning.1
Meanwhile, we are directed to pray for our Heavenly Father’s kingdom to come, and His will to be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. And the time will eventually come when Christ reigns upon our planet, as time of heaven-on-earth, full of blessings for both man and beast, including no-longer-orphaned manatees.4
References
1. Staff writer. Orphaned Baby Manatee Rescued in the Keys: Calf Discovered Under Dock Now Safe with Older Orphan. Posted on Local10.com May 3, 2020, accessed May 8, 2020.
2. Staff writer. Islamorada, Village of Islands. Posted on Islamorada.fl.us, accessed May 8, 2020.
3. Whitaker Jr., J. O. 1998. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals, revised edition. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 805-808, Plates # 366 and 367.
4. Matthew 6:9-10; Luke 11:2; Isaiah 11:1-10.
*Dr. Johnson is Associate Professor of Apologetics and Chief Academic Officer at the Institute for Creation Research.
