TAMPA, Fla.—Three young manatees, rescued two years ago from southwest Florida, have arrived back at ZooTampa after spending time “fattening up” at the Cincinnati Zoo for a planned return to the wild.
If all goes well, the state and zookeepers plan to release the trio on a cool day in February 2024 in Crystal River, Florida.
During cold weather, wild manatees seek shelter in the warmth of spring-fed waterways in that area, where temperatures stay about 72 degrees year-round. Manatees can suffer deadly cold stress with prolonged exposure to waters colder than 68 degrees.
By waiting for a cold day that has drawn in wild adults, it’s hoped the older manatees will help the youngsters learn to navigate life on their own, ZooTampa associate curator Jaime Vaccaro told The Epoch Times.
The orphans regained their health after a rough start in life under the care of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP), an interstate network of organizations and agencies. The group works cooperatively to “rescue, rehabilitate, release and monitor Florida manatees,” according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), an MRP member.
FWC officers found Piccolina in the Gulf of Mexico near Venice, Florida. The size of a bag of dog food, she weighed just 44 pounds when she was brought to the manatee hospital at ZooTampa at Lowry Park in August 2021.
That made her the tiniest sea cow ever treated at the David A Straz, Jr. Critical Care Center at the zoo, also a member of the MRP.
On Oct. 5, veterinary and animal care staffers climbed into her pool, raised the floor to bring her above water level, and measured. They were happy to discover that, after having time to grow in Ohio, Piccolina had reached a healthy 755 pounds.
Piccolina’s buddy, Soleil, was found with an infected umbilical cord in a canal in Bradenton, Florida, in June 2021. Though only 53 pounds when brought to ZooTampa, she’s grown to almost 1,000 pounds, zookeepers discovered during her exam.
The third orphan, Calliope, was rescued in April 2021 near Cayo Costa Pine Sound in Charlotte County, Florida. She weighed 62 pounds and had a partially attached umbilical cord when FWC officers found her. She’s since grown to 813 pounds.
Manatees in need of human help are given medical evaluations at critical care facilities like the one at ZooTampa.
They undergo blood tests and sometimes receive antibiotics to treat infections. Those with wounds from boat strikes sometimes require round-the-clock assistance, being raised to breathe and supported in a normal swimming position.
Babies are trained to take bottles. Adults learn to eat Romaine lettuce. The pools have special floors that raise the manatees out of the water so they can receive medical care from zoo specialists.
Manatees on the Move
Once their health stabilizes, baby manatees—called calves—can be transferred to other MRP facilities, such as the Cincinnati Zoo, so that ZooTampa can make room for other juveniles and adults in need of rescue.
Animal care experts want rescued manatees to reach at least 600 pounds before returning them to the wild, Ms. Morrison said.
When they reach that weight, they can be returned to Florida to await release during January and February when water temperatures drop, and wild manatees congregate in the warmer waterways, such as Crystal River and the Teco Power Plant in Apollo Beach, Florida.
“On any given day, when it’s really cold, you can see at least 100 manatees in those waters, which means that those manatees will be guiding the younger manatees,” setting an example of how to find food, Ms. Morrison said.
The MRP has a contract with the shipping company DHL, which uses special cargo planes to fly the manatees between Florida and Ohio.
Animal care specialists put the manatees in custom-built containers with 8-inch-thick beds of foam. To keep them at the right temperature, the manatees are covered in wool and wrapped in “space blankets,” made of material used by NASA to keep astronauts comfortable.
Essential to the Ecosystem
Working to save and rehabilitate orphaned manatees is important because the gentle mammals play a key role in keeping watery ecosystems healthy, experts say.The species was considered endangered until reclassified as “threatened” in May 2017 under the Endangered Species Act. There are more than 7,520 manatees alive today, according to the FWC.
However, in recent years, wild manatees on the east coast of Florida have been dying due to starvation.
A key area they visit every year in search of warmer water has lost nearly all of the seagrasses manatees must eat to survive. The die-off has been blamed on pollution.
The waterways on the west coast of Florida still have plenty of seagrasses for manatees to eat. So that’s where the youngsters would be released, zookeepers say.
Some animal experts warn that manatee extinction could be disastrous for the aquatic ecosystem.
The Morris Animal Foundation calls manatees a keystone species that “act like aquatic gardeners, keeping vast meadows of aquatic vegetation in check and healthy through grazing.”
Many animals—fish, seahorses, starfish, clams, crabs, sea turtles, and coastline birds—rely on having a healthy habitat in that vegetation. For them, it means food, shelter, and camouflage from predators.
Plants that grow in the manatees’ “aquatic gardens” also curb pollution. They filter out nutrients from runoff from the land that, when too abundant, cause harm to water quality with algae blooms that lead to the death of seagrasses.
In the wild, manatees inhabit rivers, bays, canals, estuaries, and coastal areas, often lumbering through saltwater, freshwater, and brackish water. Brackish is the term for a mixture of seawater and freshwater.
The gray, football-shaped mammals that can reach lengths of 11 feet have no natural predators.
But interactions with people can be deadly for manatees.
Every year, many are injured or killed by boat strikes. And they’re often hurt by getting their flippers entangled in loose fishing lines and crab trap buoys, according to FWC.
Because they’re naturally curious, they sometimes approach objects that get caught on their bodies or trapped in their mouths. They’re also harmed by red tide and disease.
“It is an ongoing, crucial care cycle that we have going between our partnering facilities,” Virginia Edmonds, chair of the MRP, wrote in a news release.
“That’s the heart of this partnership, working together as manatees continue to face ongoing threats in the Florida waters and knowing we are helping to make a difference.”
Baby Boom
ZooTampa welcomed a baby southern white rhino on Oct. 3 when its 19-year-old mother, Kidogo, gave birth to her sixth calf. It was cause to celebrate, as the zoo is participating in an effort to boost the species’ chance of avoiding extinction, Ms. Morrison said.The father, Mufasa, also 19, was brought to ZooTampa from the San Diego Zoo through the Species Survival Plan Program, Ms. Morrison said. The program coordinates swaps of animals between facilities to vary the genetics of offspring.
At the San Diego Zoo, attempts to mate Mufasa with female southern white rhinos failed.
ZooTampa now has seven rhinos, including two other females named Alake and Fugo and two juveniles named Ruby and Kayin.
Adult rhinos weigh between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds and live 40–50 years, according to ZooTampa. Rhinos can run up to 30 miles per hour and are usually 12–13 feet long. A rhino’s iconic horn is made from keratin, the same substance in human hair and fingernails.
The white rhino is the second-largest land mammal, dwarfed only by the elephant, according to the International Rhino Foundation. There are about 16,000 southern white rhinos left in the wild. The population has suffered a 12 percent drop in the past four years.
The northern white rhino is extinct in the wild because of extensive poaching. Poachers often kill rhinos to take the horn protruding from the top of the snout. It’s said to have aphrodisiac properties.
Only two female northern white rhinos are left in captivity, according to the foundation.
