Rescued Manatee Returned To The Wild

BRADENTON, FL — Snooty the manatee had to say goodbye to a longtime friend Thursday, but the news was more sweet than bitter. According to the folks at the South Florida Museum, Sarasolo the manatee they’ve cared for over the past 18 months, was released back into the wild.

Sarasolo was found suffering from cold stress in Phillippi Creek back in 2015. The orphaned calf was originally cared for at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo before being brought to bunk up with Snooty at the Bradenton museum in July 2015.

When Sarasolo first arrived in Bradenton, he weighed in at only 366 pounds, museum officials say.

“We released Sarasolo – now weighing in at 743 pounds and just under 8 feet long – at Tampa Electric’s Manatee Viewing Center,” an email from the museum said. That release means Sarasolo is one of the manatees now hanging out near the Big Bend Power Station’s Apollo Beach location. That location is a hotspot for manatees during the cooler winter months.

The power station was selected as the release point for a few reasons, museum officials say.

“The hope is that he will find a mentor – another manatee or group of manatees – that already know all the winter hotspots and can help him find food and navigate to and from these areas.”

Before his release, Sarasolo was equipped with a satellite-linked tag. This tag was placed in n conjunction with the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership (MRP). It will enable the folks at the Sea to Shore Alliance to monitor Sarasolo to ensure that he is thriving in the wild. Manatee lovers who want to check in on Sarasolo will be able to do so at ManateeRescue.org starting in the next few days or so.

"Sarasolo has been very active during his time with us, so we're hopeful he'll do well in the wild," Marilyn Margold, the museum's director of living collections, said in a statement. "Releases are always a bittersweet time for us because we come to care about each individual so much while they are with us and we've been working toward this day for more than a year and a half. And we're excited to see him return to being a wild manatee."

To find out more about the South Florida Museum and its resident, and rather famous, manatee Snooty, visit it online. To find out more about the TECO Manatee Viewing Center, check out this related story: “TECO’s Manatee Viewing Center Celebrates 30th Season.”

Photo courtesy of the South Florida Museum