MYSTIC, Conn. (AP) — A manatee that was rescued off the coast of Cape Cod and later found to be pregnant will be moved from Connecticut’s Mystic Aquarium to SeaWorld Orlando.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Charles Underwood tells the Cape Cod Times the manatee will be moved on Tuesday to SeaWorld, where it will undergo further rehabilitation before being released into the wild.
The 800-pound pregnant female, dubbed “Washburn,” was picked up in September in Nantucket Sound off Falmouth, Massachusetts, by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The group said the animal was well out of its range and was rescued just before water temperatures dropped below 67 degrees — too cold for it to survive.
Underwood says the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership will decide where the animal will be released in Florida.
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