MANATEE -- Dorothy Jackson-Brown wasn’t planning on attending Snooty’s 63rd birthday celebration.

But as she sat at home watching the fun online, she decided it was something she couldn’t miss.

Jackson-Brown was among hundreds gathered Saturday at the South Florida Museum and Parker Manatee Aquarium to wish the world’s oldest manatee on record a happy birthday.

“It’s more than I expected,” said Jackson-Brown as she ate ice cream after petting some of the wildlife at the party. “This is too much fun. I am definitely going to come back next year.”

And it wasn’t just locals who wanted to salute Snooty.

People from around the country sent him birthday cards, and those at the museum sang happy birthday and watched him take bites out of a makeshift cake of cabbage heads, carrots and strawberries drizzled with pineapple juice.

There were celery sticks, too, but Snooty wasn’t feeling those.

“We’re happy with the turn out and that people have this marked on their calenders,” said Jamie Tacy Jalwan, special events and marketing manager at the museum.

Snooty was born July 21, 1948, at the old Miami Aquarium and Tackle Company, and is one of the first recorded births of a manatee in captivity.

Originally known as “Baby Snoots,” the male manatee was brought to Bradenton as part of the 1949 Desoto Celebration and has been a symbol of life in Manatee County ever since.

Marla Aldridge, a Manatee native who now lives in Hawaii, brought her daughter, Grace Adcock, 11, to take part in the celebration.

“I saw him when I was in kindergarten, now I’m in sixth grade,” Grace said. “I think he was smaller then.”

Grace said she learned fun facts about manatees at the party, like how fast they swim.

“They can swim 20 miles per hour, but that’s rare. Usually they swim 2 or 3 miles per hour,” she said, adding that she liked Snooty because “he has a good personality.”

Like any party animal, Snooty eventually tired from the festivities and really wanted a nap by midday. But he did make time to meet Nancy Van Tyle, with whom he shares his birthday.

“Isn’t he gorgeous?” Van Tyle said after getting her first glance of the seacow.

As she bent down to pet Snooty, who by that point had lifted himself onto the ledge of the tank to get a better view of his new friend, Van Tyle couldn’t contain her excitement.

“Oh my goodness, you are so cute,” she said.