Manatees near the NASA Causeway Bridge

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A manatee swims in the water near the NASA Causeway Bridge at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The gentle sea cows prefer warmer inland waterways during the winter months. The center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge encompasses 140,000 acres that are a habitat for more than 330 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. It contains more than 1,000 known plant species. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds, and a variety of insects. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky