Large, roly-poly mammals are common sights on South Florida beaches, but on Monday afternoon a group of them weren't of the human variety.
Seven manatees beached themselves before a crowd of onlookers in Pompano Beach, in what is a common mating practice for the endangered marine mammals.
Unlike beached whales, the manatees were in no danger and could refloat themselves when they wanted to, said Pat Quinn, a manatee biologist with Broward County.
They ended up on the beach because a group of males were pursuing an unwilling female for sex, he said. Typically these mating aggregations involve a single female and several males.
"They pretty much exhaust the female until she's too exhausted to fight back," Quinn said. "To get away, she often goes to shallow water."
The manatees can easily return to the ocean and are in no danger, he said. The only harm could come if any people get too close.
"The males get really single-minded, they can weigh 1,500 pounds, and they're thrashing around, so someone could really get hurt."
Regina Kaza, a communications major at Florida Atlantic University, was at the beach with friends when she saw something going on in the surf.