TAMPA, Fla. — A manatee has been released back to Florida waters Wednesday morning after a 15-month rehabilitation at the David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Critical Care Center.

The manatee is named Bellissima by the manatee team, which is Italian, for “beautiful,” because she was rescued from Beautiful Island where she was found stranded by a hiker.

She was released to Horton Park in Cape Coral.

Bellissima first arrived at ZooTampa on March 9, 2021, where she was in dire condition. According to ZooTampa, she was emaciated and had severe wounds to her body and flippers from exposure. Upon rescue, she weighed just 750 pounds. A manatee of her size should have weighed well over 1,000 pounds.

Bellissima went through more than a year of rehabilitation, where she received daily wound care and hydrotherapy for almost four months by the dedicated medical and animal care teams.

Now, she is healthy and now weighs 1,445 pounds.

“Bellissima has been a true testament to the incredibly resilient nature of these amazing animals. Watching her recovery after her fight to survive stranding on an island has been a true marvel,” said Dr. Melissa Nau, Director of Animal Health. “We are so thankful to the hiker who found and reported her and to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) team who rescued her and brought her to our manatee critical care center.”

“She looks like a completely different manatee,” said Tiffany Burns, Director of Conservation for ZooTampa. “It’s always a good day when we can return a manatee back to the wild. The resilience of manatees always inspires us, and Bellissima is no exception.”

ZooTampa has cared for more than 500 manatees with the majority returned to the wild, and is one of the only four critical care centers in the U.S. To help save manatees by reporting sick and injured manatees, contact FWC at 1-888-404-3922.