Manatee Updates

Rocket was observed next to Annie across from Blue Spring State Park milling along the vegetation bank the evening after his release on 2/11/08. On 2/13/08, both animals were milling in Lake Beresford and they returned to Blue Spring on 2/19 following a cold front. Since his return, he has only poked his head out into the river a couple of times and if he did encounter a boat or kayak he made a quick retreat back into the spring. Rocket wrapped his tether around a fallen tree on 3/3/08 and park staff were kind enough to unloop him. He evidently was not struggling but once released he swam steadily away with Annie. Rocket has been observed feeding on brown algae and bark over the past week but not as much as Annie. He appears to follow Annie everywhere she goes and has only been observed away from her side on one occasion since release.

4/7/08:

We were able to provide Blue Spring State Park with assistance this weekend to help minimize the human interaction with Annie and Rocket. Luckily they stayed in the canoe basin on Saturday so interactions were minimal. Sunday morning both animals were just north of the spring in the river. By late afternoon they had moved to Frenchman's landing where Annie solicited human attention which included some feeding and lots of touching. Everyone was great about leaving her alone after they were educated and then luckily the rains came soon after. This morning it was looking good that both Annie and Rocket were going to stay out in the oxbow just north of the spring but this afternoon they showed back up at Blue Spring and were located most of the afternoon by the diver's entry.

4/11/08:

Annie/Rocket still in Blue Spring and we have yet to obtain volunteers to help us reduce their human interactions. Several universities have been contacted for help along with Save the Manatee Club sending out request for help from their volunteers.

4/28/08:

Annie and Rocket have primarily stayed within Blue Spring State Park over the past month. They have ventured out into the river on numerous occasions to the oxbow just north of the spring. Unfortunately, they have also discovered they can obtain a bit of attention from people off Frenchman's Landing near the oxbow, which is also located in the state park. As discussed earlier, we have been assisting the park staff with efforts to reduce human interactions with the rehab animals. WT along with park staff have been able to assist with educating the public on the situation and incidence have been minimal. Unfortunately, we have had only two people volunteer to help with our efforts which has taxed all staff involved. To maintain our efforts to keep someone near the "twins" during the weekends, Save the Manatee Club offered up funds to pay for park staff to work additional hours for weekend 4/26-27 and the upcoming weekend of 5/3-4. Thank you SMC for coming forward with help...it has given us all a breather!

Annie and Rocket have both been observed feeding daily on algae, roots and leaves while in the spring run. They have been observed nibbling on pennywort and exploring along the vegetation barrier in the oxbow. Unfortunately last week, the vegetation outside of Blue Spring was sprayed by SJWMD and was dying back. We have noted rehab animals will vegetation for two weeks after application. Annie and Rocket were social during the recent cold front which prompted over a dozen wild manatees to return to Blue Spring. Rocket is a bit more social with manatees than Annie but she is definitely more social with humans. We continue to have unusually cooler river temperatures than normal, the river temp was 23.5C on 4/22/08. We had hoped the "twins" had finally begun their adventures away from the park as they both were located in the southern portion of Lake Beresford on 4/27/08. Unfortunately this morning, they both were back in the oxbow just north of Blue Spring. We continue to hope with the warming of the river (today 26C) they will begin to venture further away from the spring.

5/19/08: staff and volunteers not feed on sprayed

Annie and Rocket stayed most of the day inside the spring run Saturday and by around 1530 they had moved out and were at the beach where boats pull up to go to Blue Spring. Our WT volunteer Adella said the interactions were minimal during the day since the park was able to close portions of the run down depending on where the "twins" were while allowing access to the rest of the area.

Sunday afternoon, Annie and Rocket had moved up to Lake Beresford and this morning they are just south of SR44 bridge....a new adventure for the both of them. This is the furthest from the spring they have gone and it was made in a short time period. Anticipate they followed a manatee up there.

At this point, we go back to watching their activities and hope they continue more of their adventures away from Blue Spring.

7/24/08:

Annie and Rocket also moved into Blue Spring on 7/22/08 shortly after Hurricane was sighted. Both animals feed on algae for most of the day along the banks while swimmers were encouraged to give them space.

8/04/08:

Annie's belt was cut off Thursday 7/31/08. The honors to cut her free were given to Melody since she was the one that successfully free belted Annie a month ago. Annie was very responsive to a swimmer in the water but shortly after attempting to solicit attention from the swimmer (which was not given), her focus fell back to her very sexually active friend....Rocket. Annie looks like she has gained weight, with fat rolls obvious around her neck and a very large round belly. Rocket also had a round belly but he definitely has trimmed down. Both animals were later observed during the visual intensively feeding on water lettuce with Annie feeding from time to time on pennewort. Rocky's fixation on Annie appears to be both sexual and maternal in nature. We have seen him on numerous occasions engaging in sexual activity while we have also seen him attempting to nurse from her (no, she is not pregnant...yet).