Aww! Rare manatee twins born in Florida waters

Ben Abramson | USA TODAY

What's cuter than a baby manatee? Two baby manatees! And that's just what visitors to Florida's Homosassa Springs may spot after a rare birth of twins in the wild.

“In the past 10 years, maybe I’ve spotted a dozen sets of twins but never once have I seen them in the springs nor have I seen a mother and her calves quite so visible in Homosassa waters,” says Ivan Vicente of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Manatees are a favorite sighting of Florida visitors, congregating throughout coastal waterways in the summer and near warm springs and power plants in the winter. They are also on the federal endangered species list, with fewer than 6,000 remaining, and are frequent victims of strikes from boats and personal watercraft.

Vicente advises visitors who wish to see the twins to arrive in the next few weeks before the mother takes the family out into the Gulf of Mexico. You can see more photos of the family below, and a video of the Homosassa Springs manatees on Citrus County's Facebook page.