modern YORK -- In the heat of summe...

modern YORK -- In the heat of summer all sorts of tourists head north to cooler climes. This year, a manatee has joined the common people cruising past the nightclubs of Manhattan and continuing north.

The massive animal has been spott in the Hudson River at least three times in the last week -- first distant from the Chelsea and Harlem sections of Manhattan, then to the north in slumberous Hollow in suburban Westchester shire

"It was gigantic," said Randy Shull who said he spott the unusual visitor Sunday afternoon while boating. "When we saw it surface, its back was just mammoth."

Last month trackers saw the manatee as it swam north, first near Delaware, then Maryland, then just discovered Jersey. By Saturday, it was seen in Manhattan.

Kim Durham, preserve program director for the Riverhead Foundation, a nonprofit dispose devoted to marine mammals, called it a "bona fide" sighting, unless there isn't photographic proof.

It is unusual for individual of the creatures -- oftentimes associated with the warm waters of Florida -- to travel in the same manner far north, although they have been reported along the shores of prolonged Island and even Rhode Island.

Manatees are an endangered marine mammal. Florida wildlife adroits counted 3,116 in their annual overlook in February.

John Vargo, the publisher of Boating forward the Hudson magazine, said his alert about the sightings was met with disbelief by dint of some boaters.

"Some were laughing about it, because it couldn't possibly be true" he said.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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