Beloved manatee, one of the oldest in Florida, dies at ZooTampa

TAMPA - ZooTampa is mourning the loss of one of the oldest manatees in the world. Juliet was more than 65 years old when she passed away early Sunday morning.

At more than 3,000 pounds, Juliet was among one of the oldest manatees, with an estimated age somewhere between 65 and 68 years old.

"This is a very aged animal and learning from her even after we do the necropsy and learning all the results of her scientific evaluation will, I think, be very helpful for us to learn what was her situation at that sort of an age living in human care for such a long period of time," ZooTampa Senior VP of Animal Health, Conservation & Education Dr. Cynthia Stringfield said.

She was rescued in 1956 along with her soon-to-be mate named Romeo. In 1975, Juliet became the first manatee in the U.S. to give birth in a facility. The pair spent decades at the Miami Seaquarium up until a few months ago, when conditions at the aquarium worsened. That’s when U.S. Fish and Wildlife reached out to ZooTampa to find Romeo and Juliet a new home.

Using a crane, tarps, a large truck and dozens of workers, they drove both from Miami to their new home at ZooTampa in December.

"She started eating after a couple of days. She was socializing with our other animals (the) past few months, which she's been doing really well," Dr. Stringfield said.

READ: Manatee deaths on Nature Coast causing renewed worries

But this past weekend, she stopped eating, so they took her into the medical pools for a blood sample. That’s when Dr. Stringfield says her condition rapidly declined within hours. She died early Sunday morning.

"We definitely saw some changes in her that were very consistent with her age, old age related organ changes. And now we'll have to wait a few weeks to get all the microscopic evaluations back. That will give us more details," Dr. Stringfield said.

Dr. Stringfield believes human care greatly contributed to her long life. Her death comes as manatees in the wild are seeing lower death numbers, with 556 deaths reported in 2023. That’s the lowest amount reported in the last five years. Dr. Stringfield hopes Juliet’s story shines a light on the issue, so those numbers continue to stay low.

"As hard as it is and as sad as it is for all of us to lose her, I always appreciate when they can go on teaching people even after they're gone," Dr. Stringfield said.

ZooTampa is currently in talks with a museum about putting Juliet’s skeleton on display. As for the necropsy, they expect to get many more details in the coming weeks.

Dr. Stringfield says researchers haven’t had many manatees this old to research, but among the ones they have, causes of death typically include things like heart disease or some form of cancer.

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