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Wrong-Way Manatee Heads Home to Fla.

Saved from icy Cape Cod waters, 'Dennis' sets off on truck trip

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 12, 2008 1:53 PM CDT

(Newser) – Animal experts staged a dramatic rescue in Cape Cod yesterday, pulling ashore a juvenile 1,000-pound manatee and hauling it into a moving van bound for Florida, the Cape Cod Times reports. “Things went as well as we could have hoped for,” a rescuer told the Boston Globe, noting it’s the first time a manatee has been found so far north.

“I was crying when I first saw the fish,” one onlooker said of “Dennis.” Named for the harbor town where he’s become a celebrity, the manatee showed signs of cold stress and was in serious danger. “He wouldn't have survived much longer had we not got to him now,” a veterinarian said. After receiving treatment in Orlando, Dennis will be released back into the wild.

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A team of animal experts rescues a manatee yesterday in Dennis, Mass. The sea cow, nicknamed "Dennis," strayed more than 1,000 miles from its natural habitat. (PRNewsFoto/International Fund For Animal Welfare)

Manatees, listed on the federal endangered species list, live in warm, tropical waters around and south of Florida. (Shutter Stock)

These manatees, at Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, Fla., are about to get a new neighbor. (AP Photo/John Raoux, file)

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A wayward manatee is being trucked home to Florida after being rescued Saturday morning from frigid waters off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. (AssociatedPress)

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It is a lot of money to spend on an animal, but it's an endangered species. - Rescuer Katie Touhey on the five-figure bill for repatriating "Dennis"

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Wrong-Way Manatee Heads Home to Fla.