Nicole Auil (far left), Program Manager and Conservation Biologist for Wildlife Trust's Belize Manatee Conservation Project, with Tiny and her caretakers. The rehabilitation pool was purchased with the help of Save the Manatee Club. (Photo by Zoe Walker, Wildlife Trust)

In September 2003, Save the Manatee Club sent emergency funds to Belize to help rehabilitate an orphaned manatee calf named Tiny. Tiny was joined a year later by an injured female calf named Buttons. What follows is the tale of their rehabilitation and Tiny's release into the wild.

By Nicole Auil, Program Manager and Conservation Biologist,
and Jamal Galvez, Wildlife Trust’s Belize Manatee Conservation Project;
and Angela Gall, Wildtracks

Tiny has been in rehabilitation since she was three weeks old, and she has made excellent progress with a lot of hard work from her volunteer caretakers. Now, no longer a calf, she was ready to be prepared for release into the wild. To start, she was transferred from her rehabilitation pool to a pen in the lagoon, which is a much more natural environment. Here, the water circulates naturally, bringing the smells and tastes of the wild to her and beginning to prepare her to move back to the wild.

In October 2004, the Belize Marine Mammal Stranding Network rescued another calf badly cut by a boat engine. Buttons, as she was named (she was found in Buttonwood Bay), was estimated to be seven months old and was very much a wild animal -- nervous of her human custodians. After a few weeks, Buttons became easier to feed and slowly began to approach her feeders. By January, Buttons was considered to be strong enough to move into one of the lagoon pens.

Tiny and Buttons spent hours nose to nose at the fence that separated them -- communicating with their high-pitched squeaks and rubbing their whiskers against each other. When the separating fence was removed to create one large pen, the two began to swim together, and Buttons would follow Tiny around like a calf follows its mother.

Bob Bonde from the U.S. Geological Survey Sirenia Project does a health assessment on Tiny as a calf. (Photo by Zoe Walker, Wildlife Trust)

Making the Adjustment
to the Wild
The next step in their rehabilitation process was to take Tiny and Buttons out into the nearby lagoon. For this step, a section of their pen was removed and the two manatees were encouraged to follow their caretaker out into the lagoon -- a shallow, semi-enclosed area of brackish water and mangrove islands with large seagrass beds. The manatees followed closely and, after several outings, began to learn about eating seagrass.

After Tiny and Buttons got used to swimming in the lagoon, the next stage was to let them go out unaccompanied. They got so used to this activity that eventually their pen was left open at all times to let them come and go at will. They only returned to have their milk when they were called.

Mother Nature Intervenes
Unfortunately, one night the lagoon was churned up and there were intermittent heavy rainstorms. The next morning, the manatees were nowhere to be seen! A search party was organized and for 10 days the lagoon and the coastline were scoured by motorboat, canoe and airplane, but there was no sign of the manatees.

Finally, on the 10th day, we received a call from a local fisherman saying he had found a manatee in his fishtrap. It was Tiny. She was recaptured, and it was decided that it was time to release her properly with a tag or tracking device so that we could monitor her progress. Buttons has since been sighted but not recaptured. However, she was much better adapted for life in the wild than Tiny, having only been in captivity at an older age and for less time.

Tiny is Released
On April 17, 2005, Tiny arrived at Gales Point at 8:36 a.m., where the Wildlife Trust tagging crew would release her into the Southern Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary. Tiny was calm at first but was restless once she realized the truck had came to a halt. At the site, she got a complete health check, which included fat measures using an ultrasound, an oral temperature and blood test, and electrocardiogram. The results were terrific: she was a healthy animal.

Tiny, still a youngster, does the back float in her rehab pool. (Photo by Zoe Walker, Wildlife Trust)

Tiny's measurements were also taken. Her total length was 200 centimers (six feet) and her girth at umbilicus was 152 centimers (almost five feet). Once the measurements were completed, Tiny was equipped with a PIT tag, which will allow the team to immediately identify her if she is captured again, and a VHF tag, which will allow the team to follow her movements via radio signal. She was then transported to her release site at approximately 10:41 a.m. Tiny was released west of Gales Point Village, a spot chosen to prevent her from gaining easy access to the sea and would provide more protection from bad weather and human disturbance.

Upon release, Tiny made a number of trips under the capture boat and then slowly moved away. When the boat started on its way back home, she didn’t seem to be bothered at all. At about 17:24 p.m. that same day, she was tracked and sighted at the Manatee Lodge dock. She then traveled slowly northeast of the lodge to Manatee Hole, a warm spring where a number of manatees hang out. There, she decided to stay awhile.

Tiny's Travels
Tiny seemed very active at first. She explored a number of different places in the southern lagoon and would stay in each area for a day or two. Then she decided to return to those areas again. Whenever she was tracked by the team, she would come right up to the boat and put her head up to the boat side. Sometime later her VHF antenna broke, but we were still able to track her.

On the morning of June 17, Tiny was seen wandering at a marina just south of Belize City. She was found west of a channel where large boats often travel. She was monitored by members of the Belize Marine Mammal stranding Network. The following day she was given a checkup, and it was confirmed that she was in good condition, although she had lost some size, as her umbilicus girth was 136 centimeters (over 4 feet). Due to the heavy boat traffic around Belize City, she was captured and taken back to the peaceful Southern Lagoon, where she has since been observed with other manatees.

In the future, rescued manatees will be placed in rehabilitation pools, such as the one that was purchased with the help of Save the Manatee Club. The goal of the Belize Marine Mammal Stranding Network’s rescue and rehabilitation program is to return healthy manatees to the wild and to contribute to the endangered manatee population there.

Tiny (right) and Buttons hang out together during the rehabilitation process. (Photo by Angela Gall, Wildtracks)

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Get More Info: Read more about manatees in Belize and
the Belize Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

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