News

Manatees On The Mend

By Cora Berchem, Director of Multimedia and Manatee Research Associate

After manatee season ended, things slowed down a little, but not much! On March 20, we assisted with the release of manatee Taffy and her son Laffy at Blue Spring. The pair were rescued in mid-January by our Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP) partners from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), SeaWorld, Brevard Zoo, and Jacksonville Zoo in the Ortega River near Jacksonville. They were hanging out in a residential canal that was slightly warmer than surrounding waterways and is used by manatees during the colder months. However, it is not warm enough to sustain manatees throughout the winter. The rescue team sent us photos of the mother, and our researchers were able to match her to a known Blue Spring manatee Taffy who has been seen at Blue Spring since 2022. Luckily, the pair made a speedy recovery from cold stress syndrome at SeaWorld Orlando and were ready to be returned to their natural habitat in March.

A week later, just in time for Manatee Appreciation Day on March 26, we assisted with the release of a manatee that we had helped rescue for cold stress syndrome in mid-December at Blue Spring. The juvenile male bore slight resemblances to the known manatee Lilpeep, and at first, we wrongly assumed it might be him. However, a scan for a PIT tag (or microchip—which Lilpeep received after being rescued before) was negative. SeaWorld staff decided to name the male juvenile Holler—as in “hollering at someone” and not a “little peep.”

Our MRP partners from around the state had an active winter. For most of the colder months, ZooTampa cared for over 20 manatees, and they were elated when we dropped off some much-needed supplies in early February that were donated through our wish list. SeaWorld cared for over 40 manatees all winter. Luckily, many were deemed ready to return to their natural habitat in early spring, and others who needed more time were transferred to partner facilities at Disney, the Georgia Aquarium, and the newly opened manatee rehabilitation center at Brevard Zoo. Disney’s The Living Seas manatee rehabilitation program recently transitioned to a short-term care facility, caring for manatees that have already received critical care at a partner facility. Once Disney became a short-term care facility, they transferred their two long-term care patients—Lil Joe and Inigo—to Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park in Destin, Florida. Gulfarium opened their second-stage manatee rehab facility in January, just in time to receive these new patients. The public now has the chance to view recovering manatees at Disney before they are ready to return to their natural habitat.

We also heard that the orphan calf we helped rescue in early February—named Mandalore—is doing very well and gaining weight. Over the spring, we assisted our partners with the rescues of tagged manatees Churro and Lizzie, who were most likely affected by the prolonged cold that made their first winter out in the wild extra tough. They had both lost significant weight by the time they were rescued, but they recuperated very well.

Summer is prime time for boating, so rescues of manatees struck by watercraft tend to increase. We want to remind all water recreation enthusiasts to pay extra attention when sharing the waterways with manatees and to report any sick or distressed manatees immediately to the FWC Wildlife Alert Hotline at 1-888-404-3922.