#lakecowal

[froggyliciouz]

Their german name is „Seekühe“ which literally translates to Lakecows

how do manatees even survive as a species if they're way too peaceful. somehow nothing wants to eat them. not gators or sharks or whales

it's quite simple, they're their ecosystem's version of a megafauna grazing mammal! they're simply too large for most predators to bother. they are, in fact, fucking huge.

see, manatees don't actually live out in the open ocean. they live in rivers, estuaries, and shallow seagrass bays like this:

so the thing is, large macropredator sharks and superpredators like killer whales don't go here! they stay out in open deep water, so they never really cross paths with manatees in the first place.

there ARE sharks here, but they're small! adult manatees are completely out of their prey size range, and they're more interested in fish anyway.

alligators do live here also, but even a very large alligator can't really dream of preying on an adult manatee! again, they're simply too big.

so, yeah. this is just another case of "this mammal is able to get away with being a gentle giant by simply growing too large for any predator in its area to touch" and I think that's beautiful.

[mshellj]

Surely we're not the only ones that stop on random dirt roads to take photos of falling down fences? #lakecowal #fences #countrydirtroads #fallingfences #random #nswcountry (at Lake Cowal, New South Wales, Australia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYQ8vUHP1xB/?utm_medium=tumblr

[mshellj]

Spent today exploring a couple of small towns around West Wyalong and the largest inland lake in NSW. My favourite was definitely a swim in the mineral pool and the amazing sunset. #westwyalong #ungarie #ungariebigfooty #barmedman #barmedmanmineralpool #lakecowal #nswsmalltowngems #visitnsw #explorensw #exploreyourbackyard (at West Wyalong, New South Wales) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYQ7_cqv5cg/?utm_medium=tumblr