TAMPA, Fla. — Zoo Tampa is home to the largest non-profit manatee critical care center in the country, and this month, they added to that legacy, giving them the ability to care for even more manatees.
This month, they expanded their David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center from three pools to five pools.
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“There has been such a need to increase our capacity with the number of manatees we are receiving over the last 30 years, so we’ve been working really hard for the past two years to expand, and we are ready and open,” said Molly Lippincott, Senior Curator of Florida and Marine Life.
Lippincott says at one point last year, they had a record 28 manatees in their care, many of them injured by boaters, while the others were sick or abandoned as babies.
“This is really exciting that we have that needed space. This has taken us many years to get here, and our team is very proud of our hospital and wants to continue to have that grow,” said Lippencott.
The team is also proud to say that, out of the 600 manatees in total they have taken in since 1991, almost all of them were able to return to the wild, and that process all begins with these 16,000-gallon pools.
“With these pools, we are hopeful that we will be able to take in more animals, and it really depends on size, case, that sort of situation,” said Lippencott.
The entire manatee hospital is in full view of the public. Zoo Tampa says it’s people who can make the biggest difference when it comes to keeping these amazing animals safe.
“We do know that it starts with the heart, and we want people to see the things that impact manatees on a daily basis, and that if you care, then we can care, and we can all do this together,” said Lippencott.
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