Manatee’s Cause of Death Won’t Be Resolved

By Kendall Jones The Commercial Appeal

The cause of death of the manatee that turned up in the Wolf River Harbor in October will remain unresolved.

A Memphis Zoo official said Tuesday he could not gather enough tissue from the animal to determine a cause of death.

Dr. Andy Kouba, curator of conservation and research for the zoo, said the male sea cow probably died of exposure.

The Mississippi River is cooler than the 70 degree and higher waters where manatees are usually found.

“The fact that the temperatures were much lower might have led to hypothermia,” Kouba said. “It’s unlikely that it died from disease or something like that.”

In mid-December, after evading several rescue attempts, the manatee was found dead in McKellar Lake.

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