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INJURED FEMALE MANATEE GIVES BIRTH AT TAMPA’S LOWRY PARK ZOO
An adult female manatee patient with a serious chest injury gave birth Monday to a full-term male calf at the David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Hospital at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo. The birth marks only the second in the hospital’s history, with the first occurring in May 2000. After the first 48 hours, the new calf weighing 76 pounds appears healthy and robust and is nursing routinely, although challenged by the mother’s buoyancy and position in the water due to her injuries.
Prior to her arrival at the Zoo’s manatee hospital, the adult female manatee was spotted by an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) on Wednesday, May 13 in the St. Johns River. The officer noticed the manatee was floating high in the water. The animal was sighted again the following day, allowing Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) biologists and staff from Jacksonville Zoo to rescue the animal who had a visible long linear wound from a boat strike and physical signs of late-term pregnancy.
The new mother successfully gave birth on her own in the early hours of the morning on Monday, prior to the arrival of zoo keepers at 7 a.m. Before giving birth, the mother had suffered a blunt trauma wound to her chest resulting in a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) which left her floating on her right side, unable to right herself or submerge in the water. She has begun to eat, which will be critical to her ability to nurse and help her body fight infection which may result from her injuries.
Dr. David Murphy, Zoo veterinarian, noted that the fact that the mother is seriously injured complicates the rehabilitation process. The mother and calf are in a critical bonding period where the relationship and nursing are established. The animal care team is closely observing the pair and carefully monitoring behaviors, but has necessarily halted intervention with the mother’s injuries during this bonding period. After time, greater intervention with the mother’s injuries will resume.
The Florida Manatee and Aquatic Center at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo expands the traditional boundaries of a zoo, focusing efforts on critical care for injured, sick and orphaned wild manatees through the David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Hospital. The zoo has treated more than 220 manatees since opening the facility in 1991, successfully rehabilitating and releasing half of those patients with the goal of returning each one back to its native waters. The Zoo receives rescue animals for a great variety of reasons, the most common being: boat strikes, orphans, cold stress, red tide and entanglement (fishing lines or crab traps). On average, it costs approximately $30,000 to treat one manatee for one year.
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