Tampa’s gentlest giants get their second chances here. ZooTampa is home to one of Florida’s busiest manatee rehabilitation programs — the David A. Straz, Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center — where rescued manatees (orphaned calves, cold-stressed and injured adults) recover in pools visitors can view.
Families watch these thousand-pound patients graze on romaine, learn their rescue stories from keepers, and follow the happiest plotline in conservation: rehabilitation, release and satellite tracking back in Florida’s springs. The center has cared for hundreds of manatees, returning most to the wild.
It’s the emotional heart of any ZooTampa visit — and a living lesson in what Floridians owe their state mammal.
Bring tissues of the happy kind. The manatees are winning.
