Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens postpones releasing manatee to wild after eye injury discovered

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A young manatee will have to wait a little longer before being released into the wild.

BriarRose will be watched closely for the next few days at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens after veterinarians discovered a small injury to her right eye.

She was taken to the critical care center at the Jacksonville Zoo back in March.

It’s where manatees go when they are sick or injured so they can be nursed back to health.

The 3-year-old manatee weighs nearly 900 pounds, and it took a handful of people to load her onto a stretcher and into a truck bound to Cocoa, Florida.

This was her second stay at the zoo after she was rescued in New Smyrna Beach in early 2018 when she was found underweight and beached.

She was nursed back to health and released but was rescued again last December after she became cold-stressed.

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“BriarRose was rescued and brought to the zoo to gain a little bit more weight, and we were waiting for this winter to release her back,” Morgan Purvis, spokesperson with the Jacksonville Zoo, said.

The plan is to make sure BriarRose is healthy enough before she leaves the zoo.

Officials with the zoo told Action News Jax that although her injury is small, they want to make sure she’s fully healed before being released.

“We’re hoping that she links up with other manatees in the wild and kind of understand what water’s warm, what water’s cold so she’s able to stay in the area,” Purvis said.

If you see a manatee that’s hurt, leave it alone and call the Florida Fish and Wildlife alert hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) so officials can help.

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