Manatee rescued from cold waters in St. Pete recovering at ZooTampa
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A manatee is recovering at ZooTampa after he was rescued from cold waters near the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus on Wednesday.
The backstory:
The roughly one-year-old manatee was found alone and away from his mother in Bayboro Harbor. Staff at USF St. Petersburg recorded video of a team from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) rescuing the mammal.
"Don’t understand sometimes why they break away from mom. Mom might have been cold and just took off on it," Andy Garrett, FWC's manatee rescue coordinator, said. "Obviously, it survived this long, so it was probably with mom up until recently."

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The manatee, who has white scars covering his 270-pound body, was taken to ZooTampa to recover.
"That's from the cold stress," Lisa Smith, ZooTampa's animal care supervisor, said of the white scarring. "So when they're in cold water, they restrict blood flow to their extremities, so we start to see whitening around their pectoral flippers, their muzzle, their tail."
Dig deeper:
Manatees typically prefer water above 68 degrees, but Smith said the water the manatee was found in on Wednesday was in the 40s.
"He’s on some antibiotics to fight any kind of infection that might be going on in relation to that cold stress," Smith added.

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What's next:
The staff is keeping a close eye on him as he recovers in one of the zoo’s heated medical pools along with other cold-stressed manatees, including one rescued near Crystal River.
It will take about a year for the manatee rescued on Wednesday to transition back into the wild. And unfortunately, he likely won’t be the zoo’s last rescue.
"We tend to see cases pretty frequently, at least one every few weeks, if not more than that. And that can last through March," Smith said.
What you can do:
If you see a lethargic manatee with white scarring, call the FWC. For more info, click here.
The Source: The information in this story was provided by ZooTampa during interviews with FOX 13.
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