Manatee Updates |
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Biography: Muddy Barron is a male manatee that was rescued as an orphan with cold stress in the Barron River near Everglades City, Collier County on 12/12/05. He was 144 cm in length and weighed only 95 lbs. Muddy Barron was taken to Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo to recover from his injuries. He was later transported to Parker Manatee Aquarium to grow and gain weight in preparation for his future release back into the wild. Muddy Barron will be released on 2/27/08 at Crystal River in Kings Bay. He will be 246 cm in length and weigh approximately 705 lbs on the day of his release. |
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Field Notes:
Muddy Barron was released into Crystal River's Kings Bay on 2/28/08 at
1257 with six boat loads of participating partners out to watch
his release. It was a good turn out with local media
coverage, a UK film production group and Florida NPR. Barron took
a bit to get adjusted to his new environment before he traveled into one
of the sanctuaries and began to bottom rest under a dock. This
morning he was observed inside the main spring with many other animals.
3/11/08:
Muddy Barron's tag was located inside a sanctuary within Kings
Bay on 3/10/08. Discussions were underway the next morning to
determine a method for retrieval but after getting on the water
later in the morning it was determined the tag had moved to a new
location but was definitely not on the animal. The tether broke at
the weaklink as designed with no obvious trauma noted to the tag.
Barron was heard briefly by sonic tracking in the early afternoon but
his signal was lost. Further attempts to relocate him will be made
throughout this week. Barron made one trip partially down
river a few days ago but has primarily ventured all around Kings Bay
since his release on 2/27/08.
3/13/08:
Barron's sonic belt was
heard within Kings Bay on 3/11/08 but a specific area could not
be determined. Barron was located on 3/12/08 via his sonic
belt inside the main spring sanctuary of Kings Bay just south of
Banana Island. We were not granted entry into the sanctuary
at this time in hopes he would eventually use other areas of the bay
which did not contain swimming restrictions. Barron bottom
rested until 1530 when he finally began to make a move. As
things will go, he gave us the slip and was relocated on the
north side of Banana Island inside another sanctuary. He
was very close to the shore inside a small cove but visibility of his
activity was limited due to the wave activity until we called it a
night at 1830.
Barron was relocated on
3/13/08 in yet another sanctuary and followed a
cavorting group of manatees into the main spring sanctuary. He
eventually moved to the southwest end of the sanctuary and began to
bottom rest. Crystal River's refuge manager Jim Kraus was
notified of our limited access to Barron and Joyce Kleen was
deployed to assess our situation. Permission was granted to
enter the sanctuary (thank you, thank you, thank you) and Barron
was retagged at 1207 without any behavioral disturbance to
him or the wild animals in the area.
4/11/08: Muddy Barron lost his tag this morning. Sounds like a failure in the eye bolt of the tag. USFWS just recovered the tag from a dive shop which found it floating near other animals. Barron is still in the area and we will attempt to get him back this afternoon.
Barron's tag was recovered and turned into Crystal River Refuge on
4/11/08. The eyebolt on the tag broke at the stem leaving the
tether still attached to the belt with the remaining portion of the
eyebolt inside the large joiner. Barron was sighted just north
of the refuge office just before noon and remained in the area until
we were able to get to his location to put a new tag on his tether.
4/28/08:
After Barron was retagged on 4/11/08, his tag immediately stopped
working. A tag exchange was completed on 4/15/08. The tag
looked in good shape and re-initialized without difficulty three
times during testing so the cause of the malfunction is unknown.
On the day of the tag exchange, Barron was observed feeding on
milfoil and his body condition looked great. He has been
observed almost every visual associated with other animals and
unfortunately has had a good amount of boaters attracted to him
for swim encounters. Barron finally ventured out of
Kings Bay on 4/23/08 and went to the Gulf via Salt River.
Currently he is just south of the mouth of Crystal River.
7/15/08:
Barron has been moving
back and forth from the mouth of Crystal River to Kings Bay
about once a week over the past month. We are only doing
one visual per week on him since we had started to see him feed
routinely during May. We have not been able to
confirm his body condition due to the inability to
approach him and water clarity. Unfortunately, Barron
lost his tag early Monday morning in Kings Bay....the
tether broke at the weak link. A tour boat found the
tag during the early portion of their tour and we track the tag
to their location around 9:30am. They will keep an
eye open for any belted manatees and call us immediately if they
do see anything. Efforts to relocate Barron by sonic
tracking will resume Wednesday but if anyone gets word of a
belted manatee sighting in the Crystal River area, please call
either Melody or myself ASAP.
7/17/08:
Barron was relocated
in Crystal River up what we call the Archaeological Canal on
7/16/08. He was socializing with one other animal when
first located by sonic. Barron moved up into the canal
and began to bottom rest for 10-11 minute intervals but
was not coming up to breath in the same location.
Thus after over an hour of attempts and with the approaching
storms, retagging attempts for the day were terminated.
8/04/08: No new sightings have been reported for Barron.
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