Three young female manatees rescued as orphaned calves in Brevard County waters have come home. Redrock, Rosalyn, and Erie arrived this week at the East Coast Zoological Foundation's behind-the-scenes rehabilitation center at Brevard Zoo, each manatee now hundreds of pounds heavier than when rescuers first pulled them from local canals and rivers.
According to Brevard Zoo, the trio arrived from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium earlier this week after receiving care there since 2025, following their rescues in 2024 and 2025 as orphaned young manatees. Each needed time to grow and build strength and skills in a safe place before heading back to Florida's waterways, the zoo said. Per Space Coast Daily, Redrock was rescued on May 10, 2024, in Titusville weighing just 49 pounds and now weighs 528 pounds, while Rosalyn was found in Cocoa Beach on December 2, 2024, weighing 50 pounds and has grown to 624 pounds.
Erie's story carries an especially rough start. The outlet reports she was rescued in Cocoa Beach on January 9, 2025, weighing only 110 pounds after suffering severe facial cold-stress injuries and facial skin loss. Originally named “Noface,” she was renamed in Ohio to honor Lake Erie and now weighs 648 pounds.
A Multi-State Pipeline Built for Surge Capacity
The three manatees' journey reflects a broader system built to handle Florida's rescue surges. The American Journal of Transportation reports the relocation was part of a coordinated October 2026 multi-institution transfer, with DHL assisting with transportation, that returned four rehabilitated manatees to Florida while moving six newly rescued calves to Ohio zoos for secondary care. Since establishing its dedicated manatee rehabilitation program in 1999, the same outlet notes, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has returned 45 Florida manatees to their native waters as of this October.
Brevard Zoo said the manatees were rescued through efforts involving the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and members of the Manatee Rescue & Rehabilitation Partnership, a cooperative network of nonprofit, private, state, and federal organizations that works to rescue, rehabilitate, and return manatees to Florida's waters. The Space Coast Daily report describes the trio's rehabilitation at Columbus Zoo followed by continued care at Brevard Zoo.
A Surrogate Mother in Columbus
During their stay in Ohio, the three young manatees were housed with Stubby, a non-releasable resident female who has served as a surrogate mother to 39 orphaned manatee calves over 16 years, according to Axios. Stubby herself was left unable to survive in the wild after suffering severe boat-strike injuries, the outlet reports.
Brevard Zoo now hopes to be the trio's final stop before their return to the water, offering expertise and advanced veterinary care as the manatees build toward release into their native Florida waters. The zoo has described the region as having experienced a historic wave of manatee deaths in recent years. The Manatee Rehabilitation Center at Brevard Zoo officially opened in April 2025 as a behind-the-scenes secondary care facility equipped to hold up to six non-critical manatees at a time for weight gain and monitoring, easing pressure on primary emergency centers like SeaWorld Orlando, the zoo has said. The facility was built with funding from a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission grant aimed at expanding secondary care capacity along Florida's east coast, since Brevard Zoo operates as an independent non-profit relying on grants and donor support for capital projects.
Mortality Numbers Still Fluctuating
Statewide manatee mortality remains a moving target even as conditions have improved. Preliminary FWC statistics cited by Save the Manatee Club recorded 632 manatee deaths statewide in 2025, down from the five-year average of 731 but higher than the 565 deaths in 2024 and 555 in 2023, driven by winter cold stress, red tide, and watercraft collisions. The same report recorded 33 cold-stress deaths during a colder winter.
Those numbers come in the wake of the historic Indian River Lagoon Unusual Mortality Event, which began in December 2020 due to seagrass die-offs, resulted in 1,255 manatee deaths, and was officially closed by wildlife officials in March 2025 after forage conditions stabilized, as previously reported by Hoodline. The lagoon generates more than $28 billion in regional economic value across five Florida counties, underscoring the stakes of keeping its manatee population stable.
More Capacity on the Way
Brevard County's rehabilitation footprint is set to grow further. The East Coast Zoological Foundation plans a December 2026 groundbreaking for the $140 million Bowen Aquarium and Conservation Center at Port Canaveral, which aims to serve as a regional conservation hub drawing more than 500,000 annual visitors.
Florida residents and boaters who spot a distressed or orphaned manatee are directed to call the state's 24-hour Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922) rather than intervening directly, according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay. The hotline gives residents a way to report distressed or orphaned manatees, making public vigilance important to their protection.
