Manatees...the 'floaty sea potatoes' that we all love so well - yet are so endangered, not just in Belize, but in the region.
It has been a busy start to May on the capacity building front, with Wildtracks-Belize hosting officers from the Belize Fisheries and Forest Departments and Sarteneja Alliance for Conservation and Development for a three-day course on Manatee response, rescue and rehabilitation. These officers are on the frontline of manatee conservation, ensuring the safety of manatees in Belize's water. It has been a pleasure to share information that can help strengthen their response to live manatee strandings, and their understanding of the efforts required to ensure rescued manatees have the skills they need to return to the wild.
Participants join the Wildtracks volunteers in a supervised water change - learning more about manatee rehabilitation
As one Forest officer said at the end of the course… ‘It takes a team’… As part of the course, two of the three rehab manatees (Tess and Toby) were prepared for soft release with the insertion of identifying pit tags to ensure they will be recognized in the long term if encountered again after release. Lifting even sub-adult manatees out of the pools for tagging takes a large, coordinated team of committed people working together. All those involved, both the Wildtracks team and the course participants, are to be congratulated for ensuring the process was completed with limited stress to both manatees and people!
Participants catch Tess for her health check and insertion of a pit tag - preparation for soft release
Toby has two pit tags - one of the left and one on the right - with these embedded in his muscle, he can be identified after release if caught again
Manatee rehabilitation takes a team…
Returning Toby to the pool - even sub-adult manatees are heavy!
Tess and Toby arrived at Wildtracks as very young calves in 2022 – about 1 m in length. The tagging provided an opportunity to check their size (they are both around 1.8m from the tip of the snout to the base of the tail) and assess their condition – their girth measurements show that they are doing very well! Their rehabilitation has only been possible because of the support of our Wildtracks family - volunteers and donors alike - thank you to all who have participated in their journey!
