Manatee Mom, Baby Returning to St. Pete Waters

St. Petersburg, FL — Tampa Bay area residents who have ever wanted to see a mother manatee and baby up close might get their chance Tuesday.

Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo has announced plans to release a mother manatee and her male calf back into the wild. The pair were rescued on April 14 in St. Petersburg near the Tom Stuart Causeway when the baby, nicknamed “Beebeeate” (BB-8), was observed to be excessively buoyant, the zoo noted in an email to media. His condition made proper nursing difficult, the zoo said.

The calf only weighed 59 pounds when brought to the zoo. He now weighs 129 pounds after three months of care.

“Manatee calves are dependent on their mothers for up to two years, so Beebeeate’s mother, nicknamed ‘Ciega,’ a healthy 790-pound female, was retrieved to keep the pair together,” the zoo explained.

Zoo officials recently gave the pair a medical green light. That paves the way for Tuesday’s release at War Veterans Memorial Park, 9600 Bay Pines Blvd. The release time is anticipated to be around 10:30 a.m.

Lowry Park Zoo opened the David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Hospital in 1991 to provide care for sick and wounded manatees from across the state. Since its inception, the hospital has cared for more than 400 manatees. Of that number, 234, including Beebeeate and Ciega, have been successfully released back into the wild.

Manatees cared for at the hospital come in suffering from a variety of conditions. The zoo’s team has treated manatees for such concerns as boat strikes, red tide exposure, cold stress and entanglement. The hospital also takes in orphaned manatees.

“This endangered species has been at the heart of the zoo’s commitment to conserving Florida wildlife for 25 years,” explained Larry Killmar, Lowry Park’s chief zoologicial officer, senior vice president and zoo director. “We focus on the welfare of each manatee patient that comes to us so that we can help to conserve the species in Florida waterways. Conservation education programs at the zoo reach more than 1 million visitors annually about how to protect manatees when they leave our hospital.”

Lowry Park’s manatee hospital is the only nonprofit, acute care facility of its kind and is one of only three federally permitted rehabilitation facilities in the state, the zoo said.

As a nonprofit organization, the zoo relies heavily on donations to fund its manatee hospital and other animal care efforts.

“Without support from you and others in our community, the zoo cannot continue critical care of manatees,” it explained on its website.

To help fund the hospital visit Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo online.

Photos courtesy of Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo/Dave Parkinson