The Internet Mourns Snooty, The World’s Oldest Living Manatee, Who Died The Day After His 69th Birthday

The world is in mourning after news broke yesterday that Snooty, the world’s oldest living Manatee, had died just two days after his 69th birthday.

Snooty was born in captivity on July 21st, 1948. At the time of his death, Snooty was still able to perform tricks he’d learned while President Harry S. Truman was in office. Snooty was never released into the wild because he was born into captivity and cared for by humans his entire life, but this meant that Snooty was closer to humans than any other manatee in history. Every. Single. Year. of my childhood we took classroom field trips to the Bishop Planetarium in Bradenton, Florida to visit Snooty, who was already the World’s Oldest Living Manatee even back when I was a little kid. Snooty alwas preferred ‘blonde women and bald men‘ when swimming to the side of his tank to say hello.

In the wild, manatees have no predators but they might only live into their late teens due to lack of food, water borne illnesses, danger from boat props, etc. It was a legitimate miracle that Snooty lived to be 69 (obligatory ‘nice’). When news broke of Snooty’s death, just one day after his 69th birthday party, the Internet went into a meltdown, and rightfully so.

https://twitter.com/casspa/status/889172702648578048

https://twitter.com/amybethcombs/status/889211279445041154

Here’s a look at the cake that Snooty was given at his 69th birthday party on Saturday, just hours before he drowned:

https://twitter.com/casspa/status/888766287849164801

When the news of Snooty’s death first began to hit the Internet some people worried it was a hoax. There were some fake news articles circulating the web early last week claiming that Snooty had died just before his birthday. Everyone was in disbelief when Snooty’s caretakers, the South Florida Museum, released a statement the day after Snooty’s 69th birthday party that he had died due to an accident and there was a consequent investigation taking place. Snooty drowned after being trapped by a latch door that was left unsecured.

I last saw Snooty on his 68th birthday party (last year), in a completely packed room full of adoring fans. There were elderly people there who had known Snooty his entire life. People like myself who grew up seeing Snooty every year on field trips. And small kids seeing Snooty for their first times. Snooty connected the generations, and as you can see from the tweets above, he’ll be dearly missed.

Here’s footage of Snooty eating lettuc, his favorite food, at his 69th birthday party on Saturday: