The Cape Cod Manatee Is Pregnant, Everyone

Newborn calves typically weigh 70 pounds.

Photo via iStock/Andrea Izzotti

Photo via iStock/Andrea Izzotti

The manatee rescued from the cooling waters off Cape Cod last week will soon be a mother.

A visit to the Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut for a routine medical exam revealed the seacow is about four or five months pregnant, the Cape Cod Times reports. The gestation period for a manatee is roughly one year, and a calf is typically six-feet-long, weighing 70 pounds. Mothers can nurse their calves for up to two years.

“This further elevates the importance of this effort and the care she is receiving by our world-class team of professionals,” said Dr. Stephen M. Coan, president and CEO of Mystic Aquarium, in a statement. “For all of us it provides a boost to the conservation efforts of this incredible but endangered species.”

The manatee was spotted off Cape Cod this summer, hanging around Nantucket Sound until rescuers from the International Fund for Animal Welfare scooped her up near Washburn Island in East Falmouth last week.