Featured Image Credit: Jacob Langston
By Sarah Sharkey
Hurricane Irma may seem like a distant memory to some, but others are still struggling to recover. That does not just include the humans who were devastated by the storm, but also the animals who were impacted.
One of those animals is Jose, a young manatee calf who was left orphaned by the storm. He is working hard to continue on his road to recovery. He is living at SeaWorld Orlando and has been trying to gain weight since being found at a very thin 71 pounds back in September in the wake of an extremely powerful hurricane.
Luckily, SeaWorld found him and was able to give him a home while he works on his recovery. He has gained a substantial amount of weight and now weighs 122 pounds. SeaWorld recently moved him from a private recovery area to the TurtleTrek exhibit. In this new home, you can see him being fed a bottle every three hours.
The ultimate goal is to help Jose make it back into the wild. He needs to weigh 600 pounds before he is eligible, but he seems to be making great progress towards his goal. It is hoped he will continue to prosper in the care of a dedicated recovery team at SeaWorld.
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