Baby manatee rescued at Buttonwood Bay

Late this morning residents of Buttonwood Bay noticed a baby manatee that appeared abandoned and disoriented in the shallow waters near the neighbourhood park, apparently suffering from a propeller wound. Specialists were called and by three p.m. a rescue was well underway.

Nicole Avil, Wildlife Trust

?This animal is a calf. From in the water, I though it was a little bit older, but this is actually within a few months. I would say maybe less than four months old; possibly four or five months old. It was consuming sea grass. I saw it consuming sea grass before we picked it up.?

?The chop wound are very serious for this size of animal. The scar is very big. Manatees however are pretty strong animals. They can heal upon this type of injury. The chop wounds are from a boat. It?s from a propeller and from this vicinity from my experience in working with standings, we?ve seen a lot of dead adults around here. There is a lot of boat traffic out here. Boats leave from their docks here and I understand that sometime they leave full speed. This is a shallow area so sometimes the manatee cannot escape into deeper water. ?

The manatee will be taken to the Wildtracks facility at Sarteneja where it will join Tiny, the manatee rescued last year near the Radisson pier.