A rescued manatee became a "momma-tee" Wednesday, July 18, when she gave birth to a healthy baby calf.
An animal rescue team from SeaWorld recovered the injured manatee from Sykes Creek in Merritt Island, Fla. six weeks ago, according to a press release. The team transported the manatee to SeaWorld Orlando, where veterinarians there suspected the mammal to be pregnant given its size and weight. An ultrasound confirmed that suspicion.
If the pain of pregnancy wasn’t enough, the aquarium’s medical team had to amputate the mother manatee’s front right flipper, due to the severity of her injuries. The gentle giant sustained wounds from a crab pot line and had fishing line wrapped around her front flippers.
Human-related interactions are a leading cause of death for manatees, according to SeaWorld. Those include watercraft-collisions, poaching, habitat-destruction and accidental entanglement in fishing lines.
Luckily, the baby and mother manatees are doing well in their new home, and are under 24-hour watch by the aquarium's crew.
More:
- It's offspring No. 8 for Singapore's grandma Manatee!
- You can’t keep a good manatee down, so this one’s returning to the wild
- Can you guess the baby animal in this ultrasound?
- Orphaned baby beluga lost and found
Brandon is a mulitmedia intern for TODAY.com and just added "get kissed by a manatee" to his bucket list.