A 76-pound manatee calf is giving Tampa’s ZooTampa a very big reason to celebrate this summer. Beatrix is the first manatee calf born at the zoo in more than a decade, arriving alongside a parade of rare and endangered animal births.
Beatrix was born at the David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center to Pneuma Thurman, a 1,230-pound manatee rescued from the Manatee River after a watercraft strike. According to the Osprey Observer, Pneuma remains in critical condition and is receiving specialized veterinary care, but zoo officials say mother and calf are bonding well.
Six New Arrivals Put Conservation In The Spotlight
Beatrix is part of a six-animal arrival group highlighted by the Tampa Bay Observer. The group includes Liberty, a female eastern bongo calf born July 3, along with four critically endangered Bali mynah chicks.
Liberty weighed 38 pounds and stood about 2 feet tall at birth, and her arrival marked the seventh eastern bongo calf born at ZooTampa since 2021. The Osprey Observer reports that fewer than 100 eastern bongos and fewer than 100 Bali mynahs are believed to remain in the wild.
The zoo’s baby boom stretches beyond those headline arrivals, with two additional bongo calves, two southern white rhinos, two impalas and two nyalas born this year. The bird team has also celebrated three African spoonbill chicks and six green-naped lorikeet chicks.
Beatrix’s Birth Comes As Manatees Face Human-Made Threats
Florida manatees remain federally protected, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists watercraft collisions, habitat loss, entanglements, harmful algal blooms and cold stress among the species’ threats. That makes Pneuma’s recovery, and the successful care of her calf, especially meaningful beyond the zoo’s gates.
A Critical-Care Center With A Growing Mission
ZooTampa said its manatee center released 26 rehabilitated manatees back into Florida waters in 2025, the highest number in its history, and has cared for more than 615 manatees since 1991. The zoo’s own conservation report says the facility is staffed by veterinarians and animal-care professionals around the clock.
The work is also getting a larger public-facing stage through the zoo’s Florida Waters expansion and Straz Family Manatee Rescue. Hoodline previously reported that the $33 million project includes expanded manatee rescue capacity and eye-level underwater viewing.
For now, the most important audience is Pneuma, not the crowds: zoo teams are monitoring Beatrix closely as she nurses and reaches early developmental milestones. In a summer packed with tiny hooves, wings and flippers, Tampa’s rarest new arrival is also a reminder of how much work goes into giving threatened wildlife another generation.
