Manatees are friendly and curious sea creatures who like being around humans. Sometimes, they can even get affectionate, as snorkeler Kendra Nicole recently discovered.
Nicole was recently snorkeling at Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge in Florida when she felt something grabbed her leg. She looked underwater and saw a manatee hugging it.
While the manatee was giving her the biggest and longest hug, Nicole used the opportunity to capture the moment on camera. She later shared the footage on TikTok, with the video receiving 6.6 million views.
“When they hold on and don’t wanna let go,” wrote Nicole in the caption of the video.
While manatees enjoy having close contact with humans, it is actually illegal to touch them, feed them, or do something that could be considered disturbing. And there is quite a good reason for this.
Manatees are quite sensitive and can easily get stressed or scared away, even by something as benign as petting. Also, having too much interaction with humans causes manatees to get comfortable with our presence. This puts them in danger of getting injured or captured by people who wish them no good.
With that being said, it is perfectly okay to enjoy a hug from a manatee if they approach you, as long as you don’t hug it back.
