Manatee Springs

What you might see, by month

Counts of species records within about 1 km of this point, from GBIF.org, filtered to CC0 and CC BY 4.0 licenses only (land animals and birds excluded). These come from survey effort, so more records do not mean more animals. They are not a sighting forecast. 10,413 qualifying records in total. See the records on GBIF.

Most-recorded species here (all months)

1. River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna) (14)
2. Loggerhead Musk Turtle (Sternotherus minor) (6)
3. Florida cave crayfish (Procambarus lucifugus) (5)
4. Florida Applesnail (Pomacea paludosa) (5)
5. Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) (5)
6. blue-fintop minnow (Lucania goodei) (4)
7. Spotted Sucker (Minytrema melanops) (4)
8. Peninsula Crayfish (Procambarus paeninsulanus) (3)
9. Slough Crayfish (Procambarus fallax) (3)
10. Common Slider (Trachemys scripta) (3)
11. Rasp Elimia (Elimia floridensis) (2)
12. dwarf livebearer (Heterandria formosa) (2)
13. eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) (2)
14. Redeye Chub (Notropis harperi) (2)
15. American Black Bass (Micropterus salmoides) (2)
16. sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna) (2)
17. Bowfin (Amia calva) (2)
18. Glyphyalinia solida (1)
19. Banded Apple Snail (Callinina georgiana) (1)
20. Hobb's cave amphipod (Crangonyx hobbsi) (1)

Reef heat stress

Not applicable: this is a freshwater spring. NOAA Coral Reef Watch monitors coral reef sea-surface temperatures.

Conditions links

• NWS forecast for this point (National Weather Service; marine forecast for offshore points)
• Spring flow and water levels: check the park or operator and USGS Water Data for Florida. Rivers in flood can close spring diving.
• Cave and cavern areas need cave training. Never enter an overhead environment without it.

Depths, entry details and mooring info aren't listed yet because we haven't verified them from a citable source.

Data citation

GBIF.org (2026-10-14) GBIF Occurrence Data, queried via the GBIF API: https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=29.4804,29.500400000000003&decimalLongitude=-82.9871,-82.96709999999999&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&taxonKey=44&taxonKey=206&taxonKey=229&taxonKey=136&taxonKey=225&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&limit=0. Records by license: CC_BY_4_0: 10,342, CC0_1_0: 71. Contributing datasets (top 15):

• EOD – eBird Observation Dataset — doi:10.15468/aomfnb (10,154 records) — GBIF dataset page
• iNaturalist Research-grade Observations — doi:10.15468/ab3s5x (174 records) — GBIF dataset page
• NMNH Extant Specimen Records (USNM, US) — doi:10.15468/hnhrg3 (20 records) — GBIF dataset page
• University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Division of Reptiles & Amphibians — doi:10.15468/g3bard (19 records) — GBIF dataset page
• LACM Vertebrate Collection — doi:10.15468/77rmwd (9 records) — GBIF dataset page
• Birda - Global Observation Dataset — doi:10.15468/6kud7x (8 records) — GBIF dataset page
• NCSM Non-molluscan Invertebrates Collection — doi:10.36102/dwc.8 (6 records) — GBIF dataset page
• NCSM Mollusk Collection — doi:10.36102/dwc.7 (5 records) — GBIF dataset page
• NMNH Material Samples (USNM) — doi:10.15468/jb9tdf (3 records) — GBIF dataset page
• BMSM Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum — doi:10.15468/49s45k (3 records) — GBIF dataset page
• NCSM Herpetology Collection — doi:10.36102/dwc.3 (3 records) — GBIF dataset page
• Field Museum of Natural History (Zoology) Invertebrate Collection — doi:10.15468/6q5vuc (1 records) — GBIF dataset page
• CUMV Mammal Collection — doi:10.15468/kkgkne (1 records) — GBIF dataset page
• Delaware Museum of Nature and Science – Mollusks — doi:10.15468/lfwzak (1 records) — GBIF dataset page
• Southeastern Louisiana University Herpetology Collection — doi:10.15468/2xdxei (1 records) — GBIF dataset page