US officials have shockingly had to tell local wronguns not to get involved in underwater manatee orgies.
Manatees – also known as sea cows – are large, bizarre-looking marine mammals who are extremely horny at this time of year.
With mating season well underway, manatees in Florida are gathering en masse in shallow waters and forming 'mating balls', rubbing against one another to produce offspring.
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However, their romps have been interrupted by humans poking their own body parts into the raunchy sessions.
On Sunday (August 7), the Sarasota Police Department shared snaps of the manatees getting down to business on South Lido Beach, alongside a warning for those trying to "touch" them.
"We spotted manatees mating near South Lido Beach Sunday. Folks were trying to touch them. Please don’t," they wrote on Twitter.
Sharing words from Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium they continued: "If you see a manatee mating herd, observe respectfully from a distance. Do NOT touch.
"If you see a distressed/deceased manatee, call Mote’s hotline 888-345-2335."
It is illegal to touch, annoy, harass, or molest a manatee in the US, and for very good reason.
All three species of manatee are listed by the World Conservation Union as 'vulnerable to extinction', meaning it is more important than ever that mummy and daddy manatees have some alone time.
Non profit organisation Save the Manatee previously told CBS News that there were roughly only 6,000 left in Florida.
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Moreover, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, a record 1,101 died in the Sunshine State last year, nearly double the amount from the year before.
Manatees generally breed once every two years and typically produce one calf.
However, rising sea temperatures mean that they are in the mood more often and mating seasons can run from March right through to November.
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