Wildlife Officials Search for Manatee Spotted in Appomattox River

Virginia wildlife officials are currently engaged in a search for a manatee recently spotted in the Appomattox River, a major tributary to the James River.

First alerted to the animal's presence after a video of it was posted to the Internet, officials say such sightings, while rare, are not unheard of. According to Progress Index, the last time one was spotted in the river was in 2009.

Manatees prefer warm water and are more commonly spotted further south in areas such as Florida, though it's possible that this summer's unusually warm weather prompted the animal to swim north, Robert Lee Walker of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries told the Associated Press.

If spotted, Walker says officials do not plan on intervening, explaining that the animal will return to Florida as water temperatures begin to drop once more.

Despite appearances, manatees are not especially blubbery.

"They're very lean mammals," Wendy Anastasiou, an environmental specialist at Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station told the AP in 2010. "They need the warmth."

At the time, manatees were facing an especially deadly year as a result of cold water temperatures. In all, some 700 manatees were found dead in Florida in 2010, at least 250 of which died as a result of stress due to water temperatures that hovered around 50 degrees -- well below the desired minimum of 68 degrees for the herbivores.

During times like these, manatees are known to take refuge in warmer springs and power plant discharge canals, rarely braving the cold to forage.

According to the Save the Manatee Club, one of the greatest long-term threats to the survival of the Florida manatee population is the loss of such warm-water sites as increasing demand for drinking water and development continue to compromise the integrity of many of the state's natural springs.

Considered an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, a minimum population count of 4,834 was recorded in the United States in 2011.