The Lowry Park Zoo is one of the places were injured, incapacitated, or infant manatees are transported to be rehabilitated. Some of the animals are returned to the wild at the same site that they were taken, and fitted with tracking devices to monitor their progress. Other manatees have such debilitating wounds that they must remain in captivity, so they are placed on permanent exhibit loan to any one of several institutions that can hold them.
A large network of collaborating specialists participate in the surveillance, research, rescue, transport, rehabilitation, and finally, release or long-term care of these slow moving mammals. Those animals on exhibit in zoos serve as educational messages about how human interaction is harmful to manatees (the most common natural hazard is red tide).
Mankind is responsible for the outflow of warmed water from industry or water treatment plants that can prevent normal migration for winter, causing cold stress and death. Manatees can get caught in or ingest fishing equipment. By far, the most dangerous thing for manatees are boats. White propeller scars on the back of animals or missing parts of flippers and tails attest to the cruel reality of "boat strike" injuries.
The video shows one, then two more manatees feeding on romaine lettuce, and then the same animals from above, in the public area of Lowry Park Zoo. The propeller scars are clearly seen. At the Zoo, severely compromised animals in rehabilitation are kept in "medical" tanks off exhibit.
Video by: D. Messinger
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