I was a manatee caretaker in the Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center, for a day. 🐰🐋
Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center provides research, education, rescue, and rehabilitation for the endangered manatees. The center was established under the partnership between the Caribbean Stranding Network and the Inter American University in 2009. It is located at the Bayamon campus of the Inter American University. It is about 30 – 60 minutes drive from Old San Juan depending on traffic conditions.
Read my article on why manatee conservation is important here.
Our guide was Andrés (Andrew in English). He first gave us an orientation of the Manatee Conservation Center and taught us some facts about manatees.
There was a giant manatee skeleton hanging from the ceiling in the center. Manatees are huge!
Before we headed out to the conservation pools to meet the rescued manatees, we had to wash our hands well and put on gloves. This was to protect the manatees from outside germs.
We met three manatees. They came right up to greet us. Two were under recovery from their health issues and injuries since they were calfs. Andrew told us that they will be released back to their natural habitat when they are ready. The center limits their human interactions to minimum so that they won’t be attached to humans, which is harmful for them in a natural environment. Another manatee is a permanent resident of the center because his health condition does not allow him to live in a natural environment. Therefore, he gets more human interactions than the other two do.
After our initial greeting with the manatees. We helped out with some daily data collection routines. I got to take the water temperature readings of their pools.
We also met another permanent resident, a sea turtle, who cannot float because his shell was damaged by a boat propeller.
It’s meal time! We went back in to the kitchen area to prepare food for the manatees. Manatees are vegetarians. Their meal consists of all kinds of nice vegetables. For example, potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cabbages, and cucumbers. These vegetables are not only tasty, but also colorful. We chopped the vegetables and weighed them.
The center also grows some green floating water plants that manatees like. However, because of limited supply, it is not always on their menu.
Another dish for manatees’ table is lettuce. We inserted the lettuce into special shaped PVC tubes. The tubes looked like lettuce boats when we filled them with lettuce.
While we were still preparing the food, the manatees were all ready to eat! They even came over to monitor if we were doing a good job preparing their food.
Finally, all dishes were ready! We first tossed buckets of vegetables and floating water plants into the pools. The colorful vegetables looked like beautiful flower petals floating on the water. We then pushed the lettuce boats into the pools. The boats sank to the bottom of the pools and they were suppose to mimic how some sea grasses grow in manatees’ natural habitat. I felt so satisfied to see that the manatees liked the food that we prepared for them!
Through this encounter, I learned what manatees like to eat, the impact of human interaction with manatees, and what it is like to have close contact with these gentle and beautiful creatures.
My experience of being a manatee caretaker for a day in the Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center was fun-filling and educational. Why don’t you come to meet these smart, intriguing and gentle manatees and be a manatee caretaker for a day in the Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center? You will find that they are amazing creatures!
Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center
500 Highway Dr. John Will Harris, Bayamón, 00957, Puerto Rico
Manatee Conservation Center
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