By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati Zoo manatee keeper Lenny Hughes sprays water on Douglas, a 900-pound manatee, who was moved Saturday to the Miami Seaquarium to prepare for eventual release into his native waters in the Florida Keys. (Michael E. Keating photo) | ZOOM |

Douglas, the manatee, is a mammal, of course. But he had to feel like a fish out of water Saturday during his return to Florida after four years at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.

The 900-pound sea cow was placed in a fiberglass crate and trucked to the airport for a 5 a.m. flight in a cargo jet to Miami, where he eventually will be released into the wild.

The flight took off on schedule and Douglas was moved to the Miami Seaquarium without incident. But he had to be feeling a little weird.

Manatees are blubbery mammals, used to floating in water. So lying in a dry crate forces all of that weight onto their lungs, heart, kidneys and other internal organs, said Mark Campbell, director of animal health at the zoo. Campbell and longtime handler Len Hughes made the trip with Douglas.

"It's probably like going to a planet with a heavier atmosphere," Campbell said. "It's a completely foreign environment. We just need to monitor his body temperature, and make sure he's breathing."

The weather cooperated. Manatees have trouble surviving when water temperatures dip below 68 degrees. They migrate from the Carolinas to warmer Florida waters every winter to maintain their body temperature. The unseasonably warm temperature Saturday helped Douglas stay warm - as did the towels and blankets covering his body.

Douglas will stay at the Seaquarium for three months, where he will learn some of the skills he'll need to survive: how to graze on sea grass at the bottom of canals and rivers instead of munching on lettuce from the top of an aquarium; how to move from salt water to fresh water and back again; how to adjust to water-temperature changes.

Dr. Maya Menchara, a veterinarian at the Seaquarium, said Douglas was playing with three other manatees in a pool late Saturday morning. One of those is Buttons, with whom he will be released in February.

Menchara said the two seem to be hitting it off.

Winston Card, conservation program manager at the zoo, said his staff will help move another manatee next week, when the Columbus Zoo ships in a replacement manatee named Dundee.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com