{"id":152233,"date":"2026-02-11T23:28:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/152233\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T23:28:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T23:28:25","slug":"a-410-pound-manatee-rescued-from-a-florida-storm-drain-is-recovering-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/152233\/","title":{"rendered":"A 410-pound manatee rescued from a Florida storm drain is recovering a&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">The male manatee was taken to SeaWorld Orlando, where it is being cared for in one of the park&#8217;s medical pools, spokesperson Stephanie Bechara said.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">\u201cHe&#8217;s breathing on his own, moving independently and showing interest in food. Our teams are adjusting water levels to support buoyancy and comfort as part of his care,\u201d Bechara said.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">She said they work to stabilize and rehabilitate rescued manatees so they can ultimately be returned to the wild.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">The protected species is still recovering from a mass starvation event. In 2021, officials recorded more than <a data-wisiwig-link=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/florida-manatees-animals-climate-and-environment-e6b28b8aa373824181dd67ff30507a0a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"text_$sec cursor_pointer transition-prop_color duration_$fast ease_east-out hover:text_$sec_D hover:duration_$fast hover:ease_east-out hover:transition-prop_color\">1,100 manatee deaths<\/a>, mostly caused by starvation. The state&#8217;s fish and wildlife agency said deaths have gone down significantly, with 565 deaths recorded in 2024, and 555 deaths in 2023.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">Last year, SeaWorld Orlando rescued 56 manatees and has already taken in seven this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The male manatee was taken to SeaWorld Orlando, where it is being cared for in one of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-152233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-fort-lauderdale","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}