A Southwest Florida homeowner cleaning up in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia got an unexpected visitor Wednesday.
Kathleen Eisenhauer, who lives in Port Charlotte, took video of a manatee that had managed to make its way onto her flooded property.
Eisenhauer sold the clip to viral video website Storyful, explaining that the sea cow swam up over the dock — which was underwater, thanks to intense storm surge — and began munching away.
It “seemed very hungry,” she said in the clip, widely shared by various media outlets including Accuweather.
“It’s a manatee,” she says to someone off camera, showing the sizable creature leisurely grazing in front of two boats. “Unbelievable. Unbelievable. He’s eating the grass. We’re trying to save the boat, and here’s a manatee.”
Eisenhauer had no issue with the gentle mammal coming by, expressing her concern about manatees’ dwindling population due to increasing pollution in their food supply. In fact, she was more than happy to share the wealth.
“He loves it,” she says in the video. “He’s having, like, a little extra food.”
