Manatee Updates |
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Biography: Hurricane is a male manatee that was born at Miami Seaquarium on 11/20/83 to Romeo and Juliet. He was 104cm in length and weighed 75 lbs at birth. He has been housed at several of the manatee holding facilities throughout the years, spending time at Cincinnati Zoo, Columbus Zoo, Homosassa Spring State Park, Lowry Park Zoo, Miami Seaquarium and Walt Disney World Epcot’s The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends. Hurricane was released on 2/11/08 at Blue Spring State Park with two other manatees. He was 323 cm in length and weighed approximately 1585 lbs on the day of his release. |
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Field Notes: 2/11/08:
The releases went wonderfully and it was a beautiful day!! There
were 38 animals in the spring during the AM and 54 animals during
late afternoon. YEAH!!! At 5pm, Hurricane was noted
following two animals past the swim dock up to the boil, Annie followed
Rocket out of the spring across the river and both were observed to
be milling along the spatterdock edge. In case you were
wondering, Dundee was socializing with anything that went past him near
the canoe basin.
3/2/2008:
The day after Hurricane's
release he traveled north into Lake Woodruff which is about 15 miles
away from Blue Spring. It was assumed he followed one of the
females he was noted socializing with the evening before. Lake
Woodruff is a well known feeding location for manatees and where we have
seen some of the largest manatees all in one location. It also
has been well known feeding location utilized by our rehab animals in
the past (Snorty, Scarface, Dundee, Stoneman, Turtle, Gene).
Hurricane was observed
with other animals during all of our observations of him for the
following two weeks after his release. On 2/21, eleven animals were
observed intensely feeding and throwing their heads out of the water
with no vegetation found in the area. Interestingly, the only
item that was retrieved during anchor pulls were masses amounts of
snails. Hurricane was suspected of feeding briefing during this
observation but his main behavior observed was pacing. The water
temperature at this time was 19C (66.2F).
On 2/27, a strong cold front
moved the through the area but Hurricane did not show any indication of
movement towards a warm water source. Hurricane was observed
alone in Lake Woodruff pacing on 2/28. The water temperature had
dropped to 17.5C (62.6F). Wayne Hartley of Blue Spring State Park
had a manatee count of over 50 manatees in the spring that morning.
On 2/29, his count was over 130 and Hurricane still had not moved
out of Lake Woodruff. Thus, the desired course of action was to
pull Hurricane from his current location and relocate him to a warm
water source as had been done with two previous rehab animals during
this same situation. WT staff notified USFWS and LPZ of the
situation. FWC was also notified of the situation and agreed
with the decision to pull Hurricane and relocate him to Blue Spring.
Seaworld Florida was notified around 9:00 of the need to do a capture.
Hurricane was observed on 2/29 again pacing alone with a water
temperature of 15C (59F).
The capture crew was to
assemble at 10:30am on 3/1 but Seaworld Florida had vehicle problems and
was delayed. WT staff and volunteer proceeded out to Hurricane's
location and confirmed he was again pacing alone. The capture crew
arrived in Lake Woodruff around 1330 and Hurricane was captured during
the first net set. Capture crew personnel were transferred to the
two tracking boats to decrease the weight on the capture boat.
Hurricane was noted by the JP Peterson of Seaworld to be in good
body condition with a round stomach. Nodules were located
throughout his body and appeared to have been opened during the captured
caused by the net friction. A slight hollow along the rim of
this tail was noted and his belt was still tight.
Hurricane was relocated to Blue
Spring State Park and released at the canoe beach at 1615. He
milled up into the spring and was not observed pacing for the next
two hours. There were sixteen manatees in the spring upon release
and over thirty animals in the spring by 1800.
3/11/08:
After Hurricane's relocation back to Blue Spring State Park on 3/1/08,
he remained in the spring for three days and then ventured north into
Lake Beresford. He was observed alone on 3/6/08 and
exhibited periodic bouts of pacing behavior. Here is the
good news...Hurricane returned to Blue Spring on 3/9 following the onset
of the cold front. He has been primarily resting
since his return and no pacing behavior has been observed in the
spring run. He does appears to have more nodules over his body
primarily on his face and flippers but he is very responsive to other
animals that pass by and happen to be female.
4/03/08:
Hurricane has moved way way way up the Wekiva River. We were
not able to obtain a visual of him today but we were able to get a
very specific location of his tag signal about 1.5 miles north of
SR46. We also were able to obtain about a dozen different
public sightings of him over the past two days. He was seen
near the mouth of the river two days ago by several people and has
been observed since alone traveling up the very shallow river.
Most of the area is three feet and very narrow and it does have a
good amount of boat and canoe/kayak traffic north of the SR46
bridge. This was our first time attempting to go all the
way up the Wekiva River (which we could not do with our boat) and I
can say it is definitely not a good situation. If he decides
to stay up the river and the water table drops, I do not think
he will be able to make his way back out. Also if he does need
to navigate out of the way of a fast boat, there is no where to go
depth wise. We will be out there tomorrow and potentially
Saturday to keep an eye on things.
4/7/08:
Hurricane stayed about a mile north of SR46 milling around by
himself all weekend. There was not really any boat
traffic according to the locals just kayaks and canoes.
Late last night, he unfortunately found a way over the
shallow grass flats and now is located under SR46 bridge.
He was found today in about five feet of water pacing.
This is supposedly an area where the boat traffic will
pick up again.
4/14/08:
Hurricane was
relocated back to Blue Spring today from the Wekiva River just
south of SR46. More details to follow later this week.
Cold stress sores looked much better but stomach a bit on the
flat side.
4/28/08:
Hurricane's
move up the Wekiva River up to SR46 bridge on 4/03/08 was not
considered a good choice but we were willing to hold off
on the decision to relocate him with the hope he
would travel back out towards the St. Johns River on his own.
We were concerned his location was not a good habitat choice
based on the potential entrapment if the water levels of
the creek dropped, lack of use by the wild manatee population
and the potential of boat strikes in such shallow water.
On 4/10/08, Hurricane was reported in Nova Spring and was
receiving human attention which included touching and feeding.
DEP Law enforcement gave out warnings but the human
interactions were reported to continue. This was
very concerning for Hurricane's introduction process
since a naive animal needs to learn to obtain its
food from the wild environment not from humans. On
4/12/08, the decision was made to relocate Hurricane out
of the area after he was noted approaching humans for
attention and food the day before. FWC and SWF were
notified and arrangements were made to meet with SWF to survey
the area the following day to assess the area for capture
methods. The capture was set up for 4/14/08 with DEP
law enforcement and FWC Wekiva Aquatic Preserve providing
additional boats for staff transportation to the capture site.
Hurricane was captured at 1118 just south of the SR46 bridge.
He was transported to Blue Spring State Park and released at
the canoe beach at 1310. Morphometrics and
ultrasound were obtained. His cold stress sores looked
much better but his stomach was a bit on the flat side.
His belt was adjusted to be relocated away from cold stress
sores which were healing. A big thank you to
SWF, FWC, DEP law enforcement, Blue Spring State Park, FWC
Wekiva Aquatic Preserve group, WT volunteers and
residents of Wekiva for all their help with Hurricane's
situation. We greatly appreciate your support!
Hurricane moved out of Blue Spring the afternoon of his
relocation and was up in Lake Beresford by 1716. He traveled
to Mud Lake two days later and then returned to Blue
Spring when the cold front had passed through on 4/17/08.
He socialized with other animals in Blue Spring and was
very active. He was observed pacing at the boil
after the wild population had returned to the river but was
taking small trips out into the river at night.
Hurricane was observed on 4/22/08 traveling south of Blue
Spring responding to boats by diving down when they came
close but after each boat passed he would change his
travel direction. No relation to the direction the
boat was traveling. Later that afternoon, he was
back in Blue Spring and remained near the area for the
next couple of days. Hurricane made a big move
over the weekend and as of 4/28/08 he is located SOUTH of
Wekiva River...yea he passed it :)
Date
Weight
Straight Body Length Girth
measurements were as follows:
5/21/08:
We had determined last week Hurricane's tag was functioning
properly but was being held underwater by an unknown source
which did not inhibit his movement. Hurricane was
relocated on 5/19/08 just northwest of the I-4 bridge in the
St. Johns River. He was in a canal with one other
animal and upon our arrival both animals traveled north. After
about a half mile, Hurricane turned south and went back
alone into the same canal. He was easily
disturbed by our boat and after several back and forth bouts
in the canal, he calmed down at the end of the canal and
began to pace. We were able to get a good
position on him and were about to put the swimmer in
when he decided to leave the canal again. The
swimmer got in anyway right ahead of him. He stopped
and circled once before continuing down the canal.
This was long enough for a long safety tag to be attached to
his old tether. It was determined he had a large
mass trot line with new hooks wrapped up in a ball at the
base of the tag along with fishing line, weights, floats and
a padded lace lined leopard patterned bra. Yes
this one is for the books! After
several attempts to cut the debris free, it was determined a
impossible job. We decided the best way to get him
back on line was to attach a new tether and tag to the old
small joiner and cut off the old tether with entanglement.
But Hurricane had other ideas and decided to travel
north at a good clip. Now with a visible tag on
Hurricane we were able to follow his movement with ease but
we could not swim that fast. So we called it a day and
returned on 5/20/08. Hurricane was relocated alone in
a canal near Highbanks around 1000 and began to travel north
again just before noon. By 1400, we were getting
excited he was going to cut us a break and venture into Blue
Spring. Hurricane slowing traveled up the spring
run around 1440 and we were able to attach the new equipment
and remove the entangled tag and tether within minutes.
Gotta love clear water!! Hurricane slowly traveled up
to the boil and then back out. He rested at the
river's edge for a couple of hours then traveled north and
is currently in Lake Beresford. We got a good look at
his body condition and he has a round belly, no new scars
and cold stress sores are almost healed. Belt is loose
and will definitely need to be tightened during the upcoming
health assessment.
Hurricane's entanglement occurred on Saturday 5/10/08 in
Lake Monroe east southeast of the I-4 bridge. We
estimate this was the site based on the last GPS
transmission that was obtained by the tag before being
submerged. Have to say, this was the most unusual
entanglement debris found on a tag and makes you wonder what
kind of friends he is making :))) Guess we will never
know. As a ranger at Blue Spring said...."what
happens in Lake Monroe, stays in Lake Monroe".
Just kidding!!!
6/2/08:
Hurricane was retagged on 6/2/08 in Lake Beresford.
It is only a temporary clip to the belt but it should hold
until we can do his health assessment this month. Hurricane was with three other manatees....one of which we
thought was Dundee but after looking more closely at the
scar patterns, they are similar but not a perfect match.
6/21/08:
Hurricane lost another tag sometime between the
evening of 6/19/08 and the morning of 6/20/08. A freeze
branded "6" manatee was spotted in Blue
Spring on 6/20/08 and it appeared he had something still
around his peduncle. We assumed it must have
been Hurricane and he was with two other manatees at the
time. Hurricane's tag was recovered 6/21/08 just
north of High Banks. The tether broke at the weak
link as designed. We were not able to relocate
Hurricane today via his belt but will continue our
search on Monday. Hurricane has been moving around
a lot lately so it may take a bit to find him. He
has traveled all over to include Lake
Beresford, Hontoon Dead River, south to Lake Monroe and
even up into Wekiva River in the past three weeks.
We have noted him with three different mother calve
pairs...Ann with a new born calf, Phyllis/calf and an
unknown female/calf. Hurricane has been observed
feeding from time to time but not at a high frequency.
He has seemed more interested in socializing with other
manatees which should definitely set him up for finding
all the "cool" places.
7/09/08: I just wanted to let you know that Hurricane has come
offline again as 7/17/08: Hurricane was sighted alone traveling in and out of Blue Spring on 7/17/08. He traveled up to the overlook portion of the spring run (just west of the swim area) and then turned around. He stopped briefly to feed on water lettuce before he headed back into the river. The belt was reported to be in good shape. 7/24/08: Hurricane was resighted in Blue Spring swim area on 7/22/08. He was with five other manatees, two were confirmed to be Phyllis and her calf. Unfortunately, all animals left the immediate area by the time someone could get to the area for retagging. 8/04/08: No new sightings have been reported for Hurricane.
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