Babysitting Rachel the Manatee

Not too long after I joined SeaWorld Orlando’s Education Department, our animal rescue team rescued a young female manatee calf. The same boat that killed her mother had cut the calf on the head, and broken one of her ribs.

While addressing the calf’s physical needs, the animal care staff became concerned about the effects of stress on the young calf. All of her interactions with humans were associated with painful medical procedures. The team decided to ask members of the Educational staff to volunteer to sit in the pool with the calf (off the clock), to be a neutral human presence.

We had specific instructions to not initiate any contact with the calf, but to just be in the water with the calf.
I spent many hours sitting in the shallow pool with this calf. As her physical condition improved, she became more interested in the human sitting in her pool. She tried to chew on the shorts I wore over my bathing suit, and even tried to chew on my forearm.
The mammary glands on a manatee are where the front flippers join the body, so it seemed as if the calf was trying to nurse at the bends of my limbs.

It wasn’t long before the calf no longer needed her human babysitters, and was well on her way to recovery.
A couple of years later, the calf (now called Rachel) was featured on an episode of Reading Rainbow with LeVar Burton.  Below you can watch the episode is called “Sam the Sea Cow.”

Sam the Sea Cow from WVPT on Vimeo.