The Tourists’ Guide to Famous Tampa Bay Animals
Are you planning a trip to the Tampa Bay area? Don’t miss the chance to encounter our incredible wildlife. Beyond our sugar sand beaches and vibrant entertainment, the real Florida can be found in nature — and the unique stories of the animals that call Tampa Bay home. We’ll give you a peek into the secret lives of manatees, flamingos, dolphins, and sea turtles in this tourists’ guide to famous Tampa Bay animals. Plus, we’ll show you where you’ll have the best chance of spotting these amazing creatures for yourself!
Manatees: The Gentle Giant of the Sea
A Florida icon, the West Indian Manatee is known as a gentle giant. Newborns weigh 60-70 pounds — bigger than a large pit bull — and adults typically weigh around 1,000 pounds. With no natural predators, these sweet-natured herbivores graze peacefully in shallow sea beds. Seagrass is a manatee favorite, but they’ll chomp on almost anything green, like a clump of riverbank grass or a low-hanging tree. A manatee can eat a tenth of its weight in 24 hours.
“Manatees eat for about 8+ hours a day. Really, all they do is eat, sleep,” said Hannah Walsh, a manatee stranding biologist at ZooTampa.
Don’t let their calm demeanor fool you. Manatees have plenty of personality.
“Manatees are definitely very curious animals,” said Walsh. Sometimes this curiosity gets them into trouble, when they inspect dangerous objects. “We do see a lot of manatees coming into our critical care center here at the zoo with entanglements from crab traps … or fishing line that isn’t disposed of properly.”
Just like with humans, every manatee is unique. “The most surprising thing I’ve learned about manatees is that they do all have very different personalities,” said Erin Schulz, manatee stranding assistant at ZooTampa. Some manatees will stay perfectly still for medical blood draws, while others are “a little more spicy” and active.
But no manatee is aggressive. “They just are pretty chill,” Walsh said.
The strongest manatee relationship is the bond between mothers and calves. “Calves stay with moms for about two years of life. During this time period, they’re learning super important things from their mom,” said Walsh.
Because manatees can’t survive in water less than 68°F, one of the most important lessons is where to go to stay warm — like a natural spring or even the water around a powerplant.
What You Didn’t Know about Manatees
Manatees have prehensile lips — each side can move independently, which means they can chew food on the left side while spitting out unsavory bites on the right. The space between their upper lip and nostrils is “more like an elephant’s trunk than a typical lip,” explains science writer Ed Yong in his book An Immense World. (Manatees are actually related to elephants.)
Where to See a Manatee in Tampa Bay
If you want to see a wild manatee in Tampa Bay, your best bet is Apollo Beach or Crystal River Springs. Keep in mind that manatees are federally protected, so you can’t interact with one: don’t touch, feed, or chase it.
You can also visit ZooTampa. As of summer 2024, ZooTampa is caring for 21 rescued manatees, including two orphaned calves who get bottle-fed every four hours. “They’re gaining about a pound every single day so we are seeing them grow. They’re very feisty,” said Shulz.
How You Can Help Manatees
Manatees live in shallow water, and they can’t hear very well. Fast-moving boats often collide with them. “Most manatees come into our critical care center here at the zoo with boat strikes and scars already on them,” said Shulz.
If you’re planning a trip to Tampa Bay, pack polarized sunglasses so you can see — and avoid — manatees when boating. And make sure to obey the no-wake zones. You might be saving a manatee’s life.
Flamingos: Pretty in Pink
Caribbean flamingos are a native Florida bird, but you probably won’t see one in the wild. They’ve got a tragic backstory.
In Florida, flamingos “were basically driven to extinction at the turn of the twentieth century because of plume hunting and also because of hunting for food,” said Erika Zambello, communications director for Audubon Florida.
That’s right, we exterminated flamingos because their pink feathers looked pretty on hats. But here’s the good news: Florida’s flamingo population has been growing, thanks to conservation efforts.
“Flamingos can be this bright pink ‘indicator bird’ of whether we’re getting the water [quality] right or whether we’re getting wetland restoration right,” Zambello said, “so these flamingos that are here want to stay.”
Flamingo lovers rejoiced in fall 2023 because a flamboyance (yes, that is the name for a flamingo flock) was spotted in Tampa Bay. The flock may have gotten blown here during Hurricane Idalia. Or perhaps they cruised the winds on purpose.
“Birds are adrenaline junkies,” said Deby Cassill, a research biologist and professor at the University of South Florida. She’s observed flocks of starlings cruising the wind funnels between tall buildings — “like riding a sled down a hill”— and she imagines riding a hurricane would be a real rush. “I could just imagine the storm coming in, the winds picking up and man, [flamingos] are going to rise up and go with it.”
Flamingos don’t just share the human thirst for adventure. Like us, they also form lifelong friendships. The next time you see a flamboyance, do the Friendship Neck Test: if the flamingos are less than one neck length away from each other, they are probably buddies.
To make flamingos even more relatable, listen to this: Flamingos sometimes migrate the wrong way. “It’s my favorite fact because I am also like that,” said Zambello. “I turn the wrong way when leaving the doctor’s office.”
What You Didn’t Know about Flamingos
Flamingos get their signature pink color from their food. They dine on algae and brine shrimp, a diet high in beta-carotene, which turns their feathers pink. You might also notice them doing a kind of “dinner dance” on the beach. That’s not just because they love seafood. They’re actually moving their feet to stir up the sand so they can get to those tasty crustaceans.
Where to See Flamingos in Tampa Bay
“If you see a [wild] flamingo, just make sure you give it space. Use binoculars or a zoom lens,” Zambello said.
However, it’s more likely you’ll find a Caribbean flamingo flock at ZooTampa or Busch Gardens. You can also take a trip to Sunken Gardens, home to a flamboyance of 19 Chilean flamingoes, including a sweetly bonded pair: Georgette and Willy. “If they're separated for whatever reason, they're calling at each other, it's pretty sweet,” said Emily Mastoroudis, animal husbandry specialist at Sunken Gardens.
You can request to feed the Sunken Gardens flamingoes, and if you’re lucky, you might get a flamboyant hairdo. “We have a few that will preen our hair,” said Mastoroudis. “It's such a nice feeling. It's just like somebody playing with your hair, and I just close my eyes and soak up the moment.”
How You Can Help Flamingos
The best thing you can do is protect wetlands, Zambello said. “Support conservation efforts, support efforts to improve water quality on the coast. We have to create and restore habitats for flamingos so they can stay here and nest here.”
Dolphins: The Social Butterfly of Tampa Bay
Dolphin lovers, you’ve come to the right place. Sarasota Bay — less than twenty minutes from the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus — is host to the world’s longest-running study of a wild dolphin population.
One of the study’s coolest findings: Bottlenose dolphins form “neighborhoods” in bays and estuaries. “They spend their entire lives here, over multiple generations,” said Katie McHugh, deputy program director and senior scientist in the Brookfield Zoo Chicago's Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. “We think that part of what makes these neighborhoods so important are those connections to their community members. They live together, work together, eat, breathe, sleep, play together.”
It’s no secret that dolphins are social. But did you know just how deep their bonds go?
Young dolphins choose a signature whistle for themselves, which becomes their identifier – like a name. “Sound travels really far underwater and these animals are very vocal,” McHugh said. They use their own whistle to call out to others (“Hey, it’s me, Flipper!”) and copy another dolphin’s whistle if they want to communicate with them (“Winter, is that you?”).
Now here’s the adorable part. Adult male bottlenose dolphins forge lifelong best friendships, and often, “one of the males will shift his whistle to be more similar to his buddy’s,” McHugh said. These buddies do everything together — from feeding to protecting each other — so maybe it’s no surprise they want their “names” to sound alike. “They really are one of the tightest relationships in bottlenose dolphin society, beyond the mom-calf relationship for the first few years of the calf’s life.”
Female dolphins have close friends too, but their current BFF tends to vary based on who has a calf at the same time they do. And just like with humans, dolphin parenting styles vary. “Some moms keep the kids really close, and some of them explore more. Some have lots of buddies, and some are just them and their kid,” McHugh said.
This individuality captivates McHugh. “[Dolphins] all have a different story to tell, and they all are impacted by their interactions with their environment and with people in different ways,” she said. Focusing on their individual stories can help humans understand more about the “animals that they’re sharing their home with” — so we can be better neighbors.
What You Didn’t Know about Dolphins
Baby dolphins can recognize themselves in the mirror even earlier than human children can. They goof off for their reflection, blowing bubbles, wiggling their tongues, and looking at the insides of their mouths. This self-awareness has been linked to intelligence (and it’s also just super cute).
Where to See Dolphins in Tampa Bay
Bottlenose dolphins can live into their 60s, which means our flippered friends have seen their neighborhood drastically change. “The oldest dolphin we ever knew in Sarasota Bay was a female named Nicklo who was born in 1950 and lived to be about 67 years old,” McHugh said. “You can think about her living in Sarasota Bay over decades and decades and how many changes happened in her lifetime happened… There were entire neighborhoods that didn’t exist yet, entire shorelines that were lined by mangroves and weren’t hardened yet with seawalls when that dolphin was born into the community.”
Although many changes have threatened dolphins, others, like seawalls, can also provide a useful habitat feature on occasion. If you hang out at a seawall at sunset — like North Shore Park in St. Petersburg — you might glimpse a dolphin swooping right under your legs. That’s because some dolphins herd fish against seawalls for an easier catch.
If you don’t want to wait around at a seawall, you can always visit local aquariums, like the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, former home to the feature-film famous Winter the Dolphin.
How You Can Help Dolphins
If you encounter a dolphin while fishing, reel in your line and don’t release your catch near them. It’s easy for dolphins to get entanglement injuries or ingest fishing gear in life-threatening ways, McHugh said. Plus, dolphins teach each other foraging tactics, so a seemingly innocent encounter can spread dangerous habits to a whole community.
You can also help keep dolphin neighborhoods safe by picking up trash in the marine environment and giving dolphins space when boating. Watch dolphins from at least 50 yards to give them room to breathe, feed, and play – it’s their home. And if you see a dolphin in trouble, report it to people who can help: in Tampa Bay, you can reach the FWC wildlife alert hotline at 888-404-3922, and in Sarasota Bay, you can call Mote Marine Laboratory’s hotline at 888-345-2335.
Sea Turtles: Surfer Dudes for Life, Bruh
If you’ve walked along Tampa Bay beaches between May and October, you’ve likely spotted a loggerhead sea turtle nest. The nests might look peaceful, but a baby loggerhead’s life is full of drama.
“Out of about 4000 eggs the loggerhead will lay in her lifetime, two will survive,” said Cassill.
Loggerhead moms know the risks. They lay about 100 rubbery eggs per nest, with a few fake decoy eggs on top — in case a hungry raccoon comes by. After two months underground, it’s time for loggerheads to leave their sandy nursery. The babies crack open their shells with their egg teeth, snack on the yokes, and climb to the surface.
Then it’s a race to the water.
Loggerhead hatchlings are shorter than a kitchen toothpick. They make a good snack for ghost crabs, waiting in the sand.
“If they can just make that run down the beach and get into the sea, they’re likely to make it to the juvenile phase,” Cassill said.
Once in the ocean, sea turtles enjoy a surfer-dude life with an all-you-can-eat jellyfish buffet. “They are one of the only animals that eat jellyfish,” Cassill said. “They swim in their food all year long because jellyfish go with the currents and sea turtles, they’re cruising … They love hanging out and reaching over when they’re hungry to get a glob of jellyfish, and they eat the whole thing.”
What You Didn’t Know About Sea Turtles
Female sea turtles that hatch on our beaches will return, decades later, to lay their own eggs. “Loggerheads are driven by the urge… to extend their life through their offspring,” Cassill said. A sea turtle imprints on the magnetic field of her birth beach so she can find her way home.
How You Can Help Sea Turtles
Artificial light can disorient baby sea turtles because they can mistake it for moonlight, which they use to navigate. Don’t use flashlights or flash photography on the beach and close your curtains if you’re staying at a beachfront hotel.
As always, keep beaches clean: otherwise, a loggerhead might mistake floating plastic for jellyfish.
Where to See Sea Turtles in Tampa Bay
If you want to go beyond local aquariums, you may be able to watch a hatchling release, held by an organization like the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota.
Plan Your Visit to Tampa Bay
Looking for more useful tips for Tampa Bay travel? Check out our complete Gulf Coast visitors’ guide. And while you’re here, stop by one of the University of South Florida’s three sunny campuses — where researchers like Dr. Cassill are constantly making scientific breakthroughs and discovering the secrets of our wildlife.
