<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3RPS2o_0k3crU3q00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3RPS2o_0k3crU3q00" width="640" height="360" ><figcaption>In this Nov. 5, 2022, photo, Soleil and Piccolina are seen in the back of the ZooTampa Manatee Rescue Team’s transport truck in Tampa as they prepare to transfer three female orphaned manatees to the Cincinnati Zoo for continued care. The three orphaned manatees were rescued and cared for at the Manatee Critical Care Center at ZooTampa and will eventually be released into the wild once fully rehabilitated. [&nbsp;LUIS SANTANA | Times&nbsp;]</figcaption></figure>Caring for a malnourished manatee is no simple task: It can take constant attention, such as tube-feeding three times a day, to nurture a sick sea cow back to full health.From start to finish, the rehabilitation process can take more than a year and cost roughly $3,000 monthly for each animal, according to Sandra Torres, a spokesperson for ZooTampa. Less-intensive recoveries can still take months.<nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate>As an unprecedented starvation event has increased demand for more long-term care for Florida’s manatees, wildlife biologists say they are confident there’s enough room across the state to house the embattled animals.Since the die-off began in early 2021, more than 260 manatees have needed rescue statewide, according to the latest Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data.A majority of those rescues occurred at the die-off’s epicenter, in and around the Indian River Lagoon in Brevard County on Florida’s Atlantic coast. In that area, pollution-fueled seagrass loss has left manatees scrambling, often unsuccessfully, for a sustainable food source. More than 700 animals have died there in two years.There are 79 manatees currently in rehabilitation facilities across Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Puerto Rico, according to Terri Calleson, the Florida manatee recovery lead for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Of those, 84% are housed in Florida facilities — and ZooTampa, SeaWorld in Orlando and the Jacksonville Zoo all have space available for more.<nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate>As the construction of new rehab space is slated to be completed soon, paired with the upcoming release of many sea cows, biologists are hopeful they can handle the demand as cooler winter water threatens manatees. (They can become stressed in water temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit.)“We are now firmly into winter. I’m pretty optimistic about where we are right now in terms of critical-care space,” Calleson said in a virtual conference with reporters Wednesday.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=26IEDZ_0k3crU3q00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=26IEDZ_0k3crU3q00" width="620" height="413" ><figcaption>In this Nov. 5, 2022, photo, Hannah Walsh of the ZooTampa Manatee Rescue Team rubs down Piccolina, one of three female orphaned manatees, before the sea cow was transferred to the Cincinnati Zoo for continued care, in Tampa. The three orphaned manatees were rescued and cared for at the Manatee Critical Care Center at ZooTampa and will eventually be released into the wild once fully rehabilitated. [&nbsp;LUIS SANTANA | Times&nbsp;]</figcaption></figure><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate>Manatee rehabilitators are preparing to release 20 recovered manatees back into the wild by the end of February. ZooTampa also plans to release three manatees, initially brought in after being struck by boats or cold stress, Calleson said. And to help create even more space, 20 new slots for sick and injured manatees are projected to open up at SeaWorld within the next few months.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2SLDp5_0k3crU3q00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2SLDp5_0k3crU3q00" width="426" height="320" ></figure><nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate>All of that means biologists will be able to take in an additional 40 to 50 manatees, Calleson said.“That’s going to put us in a better place,” she said.Florida’s environmental agency received $20 million last year for expanding the network of manatee care facilities and improving manatee rescue and recovery efforts, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Twenty manatees died in rehabilitation facilities last year, and 25 died in 2021, Calleson said.More manatees died statewide in 2021 than any other year in state history, with a record-breaking 1,101 deaths that year. Last year, nearly 800 more died, according to the latest Florida wildlife commission data.The ultimate solution to the problem — meaningful, widespread ecosystem restoration — is still years away. But to help curb the unprecedented mortality in the short-term, state and federal wildlife officials agreed last winter to feed lettuce to wild manatees in a first-of-its-kind feeding trial.<nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate>Wildlife biologists put out roughly 100 tons of butterleaf and romaine lettuce over the three-month trial last year, from December to March, at the Florida Power &amp; Light Cape Canaveral Clean Energy Center in Brevard County, a popular spot for manatees to embrace the warmer unnatural power plant discharges. This year, biologists have already received roughly 35,000 pounds of lettuce, according to Thomas Van Trees, an incident commander with the Florida wildlife commission.“Especially with the cold front that we had come through, we’re in full operational mode,” Van Trees told reporters Wednesday. “We’re really going full steam ahead.”Florida wildlife officials encourage the public to report sick or injured manatees by calling the wildlife alert hotline number at 888-404-3922<nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate></div></body>

Mountain View, CA

Caring for a malnourished manatee is no simple task: It can take constant attention, such as tube-feeding three times a day, to nurture a sick sea cow back to full health. From start to finish, the rehabilitation process can take more than a year and cost roughly $3,000 monthly for each animal, according to Sandra Torres, a spokesperson for ZooTampa. Less-intensive recoveries can still take months.