After the charter plane carrying rehabilitated manatee, Holly arrived at Orlando International Airport, the ground crew quickly prepared her for transport to SeaWorld Orlando where she’ll await her release slated for early 2011.

The package picked up by SeaWorld’s animal care experts at Orlando International Airport on Tuesday, November 2, was indeed precious cargo.  It was Holly, a rehabilitated manatee, who was rescued in 1995, and has been rehabilitating at Columbus Zoo and Aquarium for the past five years.

Holly was rescued 15 years ago after she was found trapped at the Port St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant on Hutchinson Island.  When she arrived at SeaWorld she received hands-on, critical care for cold stress at SeaWorld’s Manatee Rehabilitation Facility.  After six months, she was moved to Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park and then later transferred to Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to complete her rehab.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) is the Federal agency that creates plans for each manatee that is rescued and cared for in Florida and the surrounding states.  In order to create space at SeaWorld Orlando for more critically injured manatees, USFWS moved Holly to a long-term rehabilitation facility.

SeaWorld Animal Care Assistant Curator Randy Runnells watches rehabilitated manatee Holly swim at the Manatee Rescue attraction at SeaWorld the day after she arrived back at the park. Holly was rescued 15 years ago and brought back to SeaWorld while she waits for her release slated for early 2011.

Holly is set to be returned to the wild in early 2011.
“Caring for Holly 15 years ago was extremely rewarding,” said Randy Runnells, SeaWorld Animal Care Assistant Curator.  “It’s great to know the initial care we provided has helped her reach this point in her life. We’re looking forward to returning her back to the wild next year.”

SeaWorld’s animal rescue team is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to save injured, abandoned and orphaned animals, including manatees, dolphins, whales, birds and turtles. To date this year, the park has rescued 24 and released 16 manatees.

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We started back where they care for the rescued sea turtles, manatees and dolphins.  SeaWorld parks have helped animals in need — ill, injured, orphaned and abandoned — for more than four decades.  Nearly 20,000 animals have been rescued by the park’s animal experts including whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, manatees, sea turtles and birds. This is the equivalent of helping one animal a day — every day — for 45 years. The majority of these animals are successfully treated by SeaWorld veterinarians, rehabilitated and returned to the wild. In a normal year SeaWorld will care for 13-30 rescued SeaTurtles. In 2010 they have already rescued 368 sea turtles and they have released 256! That is about 25 times more work and they have added no staff! The huge increase is due to both the January cold snap and the oil spill. We even got to see the orphaned manatee but we weren’t allowed to take pictures.

Our next stop was Pacific Point Preserve where park guests can feed the seals and sea lions. Then we headed to the much anticipated stop at an educational building that houses Magellanic Penguins! These penguins are used as ambassadors for SeaWorld because they can withstand temperatures in the 60’s, unlike most other penguin species. Aaron and I even got to pet Miss Mario the penguin!!

Next stop was dinner at the Sharks Underwater Grill. It was very cool eating dinner right next to the shark tank! We were served a Ceasar Salad, an appetizer platter with stuffed mushrooms, shrimp cocktail and bruschetta and this was followed by a dessert platter with chocolate cake filled with chocolate cake and covered in chocolate ganache, white chocolate mousse in a dark chocolate cage and fried tortillas dipped in chocolate and covered in coconut whipped cream. Needless to say the meal was yummy.

After eating all that food we were free to explore the park on our own, and encouraged to see the special summer nighttime shows. Our first stop was Manta! I rode this coaster last October and I couldn’t wait to introduce Aaron to it. Well Aaron’s tummy was bothering him so I got really brave and rode it alone! I still love this coaster but it wasn’t nearly as fun as it was riding it with Corrin, Toni, Dave and Laurie last fall. Next we walked around and checked out some of the animal exhibits before heading to Wild Arctic. After that we got in line for Shamu Rocks. This show was the whole reason Aaron wanted to go to SeaWorld and after waiting an hour in line to say it…we were both disappointed. The music is great but we both agree that the show was boring and didn’t live up to our expectations. I’m sure some of that has to do with the fact that the trainers no longer go in the water with the orcas thus leaving the show with just some dancers, an electric guitar player and some killer whales that wave at the crowd a lot.

After the show we decided to head back to our car. We had hoped to see the fireworks but we would have had to wait around  over a half hour for them to begin and we had an almost 2 hour drive ahead of us. All-in-all we had a great day at SeaWorld and I still can’t wait to take my entire family on Manta!

Disclosure: We were guests of SeaWorld Orlando for the day. No cash was exchanged for this post all opinions are 100% mine.

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SeaWorld animal care specialist Jeff Braso bottle-feeds a baby manatee.

SeaWorld animal care specialists are a little bleary-eyed this week as they provide 24-hour care for a weeks-old, baby manatee. Orphaned by her mother, the female calf arrived at the park’s rehabilitation center on July 24 after being rescued from the waters of Daytona Beach, Fla.

Every three hours the 3½-foot and 41-pound orphan is bottled-fed with the park’s nutrient-rich baby formula that promotes weight gain. Her weight is taken every other day as animal care specialists closely monitor her progress. She remains in guarded condition and park veterinarians hope to eventually return her back to the wild.

The animal was transported to SeaWorld by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

This is the 23rd manatee rescued by SeaWorld this year. SeaWorld is the global leader in the rescue and rehabilitation of manatees. The park’s Animal Rescue Team is on call 365 days a year and 24 hours a day.

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