ORANGE CITY, Fla. – After years of rescue care — including bottle-feeding and rehab — three manatees finally got the chance to head back out into the wild Thursday at Blue Spring State Park.
CardiTee, Clawford, and Lilypad all arrived at SeaWorld Orlando as orphaned calves and have now reached the health and weight benchmarks needed to survive on their own, SeaWorld officials said.
“Release days are obviously one of our favorite days for all of us on the team,” said Veronica Veara, a senior zoological specialist at SeaWorld Orlando who works on the rescue team. “It is a really big moment for these animals’ lives.”
Veara said the manatees entered care without their mothers and were raised in rehabilitation, including bottle or formula feeding as needed. The animals typically remain in care two to three years and must reach about 600 pounds before release.
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The Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute was on-site to fit the manatees with satellite tags — a belt positioned above the tail that supports a floating transmitter — to monitor movements and survival after release. The animals are tracked for about a year, Veara said, and the tag is later removed.
The release was part of a wider effort involving multiple facilities in the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership, Veara said, including centers that help orphaned animals gain weight and adjust to new environments.
Rescued manatees are generally released in the winter months in springs, which increases their survival chances. Overall, Veara said the manatees’ release went smoothly.
“They went, and they looked for other animals. There are obviously a lot of animals in the park today, so it’s really awesome to go see and watch them intermingle and kind of look for those other animals.”
As of Thursday, SeaWorld said there are roughly 25 rescued manatees currently in-house being rehabbed.
[WATCH: Rescued manatee taken to SeaWorld]
The manatees’ release comes on the same week SeaWorld helped rescue a manatee that was trapped in a storm drain in Brevard County.