Скачать или смотреть Doscal Returns to the Wild

Manatee Awareness Month certainly brought The Bishop Museum of Science and Nature something to celebrate as we returned Doscal to the wild on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020, from Horton Park in Cape Coral.

Doscal was a young orphaned, emaciated calf weighing just under 400 pounds when he was rescued from the Orange River in Fort Myers and taken to SeaWorld for initial treatment in April 2019. He came to The Bishop’s Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat in December 2019 and, by the time of his release, he weighed 656 pounds!

The Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat at The Bishop is a Stage 2 rehabilitation facility — the place where manatees come after their critical health needs have been taken care of. Its main tasks are bringing rehabilitating manatees, rescued as orphans, up to the right size and weight for release or, if the animals were sick or injured, allowing them to finish the healing process. Typically, animals remain at The Bishop anywhere from a few months to more than a year.

Staff and volunteers from Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute assisted with the release. Before he was returned to the wild, Doscal was outfitted with a special tracking tag by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute. The tag will allow us to continue to monitor him in the wild. The public can also watch his movements at www.ManateeRescue.org.

“We’re very happy to see Doscal return to the wild,” said Virginia Edmonds, Director of Animal Care. “The tag will allow us to monitor his progress and we feel like he will do great!”