Meet the two new manatee arrivals at Bishop Museum’s Parker Aquarium

Two new temporary residents slid into the Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat on Wednesday at the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in downtown Bradenton.

The two manatees — one male and one female — arrived from SeaWorld, “without a hitch,” Bishop director of animal care Virginia Edwards said. “They seem very calm in the habitat and started eating right away — a good sign. We’ll be performing daily observations to make sure they have a smooth transition to The Bishop.”

Felicia is a female manatee about 7 feet long and weighing 397 pounds. She was rescued from Ruskin Inlet on April 22 with her mother, who suffered a watercraft injury and did not survive.

Doscal is the male manatee and a similar length to Felicia, but about 50 pounds lighter. Doscal was orphaned and found emaciated in the Orange River in Lee County on April 3.

The two manatees are expected to undergo rehab efforts with an anticipated release back into the wild by the winter of 2021.

Bishop’s aquarium is considered a Stage 2 facility, designed to help manatees released from their primary critical care facilities and help them gain weight and undergo pre-release conditioning before they return to the wild.

Felicia and Doscal become the 39th and 40th manatees that the aquarium has housed since becoming a rehab facility in 1998, and, of course, was the longtime home of the world-famous Snooty, who died at age 69 in the summer of 2017 in a tragic drowning accident.