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CAXIUANA NATIONAL FOREST, Brazil (AP) \u2014 Deep in silence, as if under a spell, children watch intently as Bacuri, a young Amazonian manatee, glides around a small plastic pool. When he surfaces for air, some of them exchange wide smiles. The soft rustle of rainforest leaves punctuated by bird song adds to the magic of the moment.<\/p>\n
The children from riverside communities traveled for hours by boat just to meet Bacuri at the field station of the Emilio Goeldi Museum, Brazil\u2019s oldest research institute in the Amazon. Despite their endangered status, manatees are still hunted and their meat illegally sold, and they are increasingly threatened by climate change.<\/a> Environmentalists hope that by engaging local communities, Bacuri and others like him will be spared.<\/p>\n The Amazonian manatee is the region\u2019s largest mammal but is rarely seen, much less up close. The reasons for this are twofold: The manatee has acute hearing and will vanish into the murky water at the slightest sound; and its population has dwindled after being overhunted for hundreds of years, mostly for its tough hides that were exported to Europe and Central America.<\/p>\n To help the manatee population recover, several institutions are rescuing orphaned manatee calves, rehabilitating them and reintroducing them to the wild.<\/p>\n Bacuri’s story<\/p>\n Bacuri weighed just 22 pounds (10 kilograms) \u2014 a fraction of the more than 900 pounds (400 kilograms) of an adult manatee \u2014 when he was rescued and taken to the museum’s research center in the federally protected Caxiuana National Forest. He was named after the local community that found him. Two years and several thousand milk bottles later, Bacuri has grown to about 130 pounds (60 kilos).<\/p>\n Three institutions are responsible for his care. The Goeldi Museum provides facilities and educates nearby communities. The federal Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation assigns two staffers for 15-day shifts to feed Bacuri three bottles of milk a day as well as chopped beets and carrots, and clean the pool every 48 hours. The nonprofit Instituto Bicho d’Agua\u2014 meaning institute of water animals in Portuguese \u2014 oversees veterinary care, dietary planning and caregiver training.<\/p>\n During their visit, the children learn that female manatees are pregnant for about a year then nurse their young for two more, feeding them from nipples behind their front flippers \u2014 the manatee equivalent of armpits. This long reproductive cycle is one reason the manatee population has not recovered from the commercial hunting that persisted until the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n They also learn the species is endangered and that they are the ones who must protect it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are the main guardians,\u201d biologist Tatyanna Mari\u00facha, head of the scientific base, tells the children, who spend the rest of the day drawing and making Play-Doh models of Bacuri.<\/p>\n Local knowledge is key<\/p>\n With its auditorium, dormitories, observation towers, cafeteria and laboratories, the research station \u2014 two hours by speedboat from Portel, the nearest city \u2014 stands in stark contrast to nearby communities comprising clusters of wooden houses on stilts where families rely on cassava farming, fishing and harvesting a\u00e7a\u00ed berries. School field trips and community outreach aim to narrow the gap.<\/p>\n \u201cCaxiuana is their home,\u201d Mari\u00facha told The Associated Press. \u201cWe can\u2019t just come here and do things without their consent.\u201d<\/p>\n Local knowledge will play a key role when Bacuri is finally released. He is the only manatee calf under care at Caxiuana. Once he has fully transitioned to a plant-based diet, he\u2019ll spend time in a river enclosure before his release. That site will be selected based on where residents say wild manatees feed and pass through.<\/p>\n If all goes as planned, Bacuri will be the first released in the Caxiuana area. Two other calves rescued in poor health died in captivity, a sadly common outcome.<\/p>\n While subsistence hunting isn\u2019t a major threat to the species, some fishermen still sell manatee meat illegally in nearby towns. Brazil banned hunting of all wild animals in 1967, with two exceptions: Indigenous peoples<\/a> are allowed to hunt, and others can kill a wild animal to satisfy the hunger of the hunter or his family.<\/p>\n The impact of climate change<\/p>\n The threat of hunters has become harder to manage due to climate change, said Miriam Marmontel, a senior researcher at the Mamirau\u00e1 Institute for Sustainable Development, hundreds of miles (kilometers) upstream along the Amazon River.<\/p>\n Dozens of dolphins died near Mamiraua in 2023, likely due to soaring water temperatures<\/a> during a historic drought. Manatees avoided mass mortality then because they typically inhabit deep pools during the dry season, but recent droughts<\/a> have dramatically reduced the water level,<\/a> making manatees more vulnerable to poachers.<\/p>\n \u201cAs climate change accelerates, manatees may begin to suffer from heat stress too,\u201d Marmontel said. \u201cThey also have a thermal limit, and eventually it may be crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why reintroduction efforts are so important.<\/p>\n Around 60 rescued manatees are being cared for across the state of Para, where Caxiuana is located. Bicho d\u2019Agua is caring for four in partnership with the Federal University of Para and Brazil’s environmental agency. One of the four, named Coral, was found near \u00d3bidos and airlifted 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) to the institute’s facility in Castanhal. She arrived dehydrated and with severe skin burns, likely from sun exposure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe population has declined so much that every hunted animal impacts the species,\u201d Renata Emin, president of Bicho d\u2019Agua, told AP. \u201cThat\u2019s why any effort matters, not just because one individual may return to the wild and help rebuild the population but because of the community and government engagement it inspires.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n