How the fate of Tico, the manatee, turned into a matter of state That’s why your license plate will soon determine when you can go to Portofino

July 6, 2022 was the day Tico’s life in the wild was announced – supposedly. At that moment, Brazilian animal rights activists hoisted the colossus into open water. In the midst of this landscape, the investigation of the German magazine “Spiegel” begins.

Tico is a male manatee, 2.68 meters long and weighs 346 kilograms. The animal should have looked for a partner and thus contributed to the preservation of its endangered species. But instead, Tico became a “state affair,” as the “Mirror” calls it.

That happened:

Tico in Brazil

Tico washed up on the coast of Brazil as a baby, with his twin brother Teco lying next to him – both with their umbilical cords tied to their bellies. They were found “dehydrated and rattling”. There was no trace of the mother far and wide. It was October 15, 2014.

It is not uncommon for manatee children to lose their mothers. Because in the formerly protected estuaries and mangrove forests, where the females originally raised their offspring, there is hardly any water today. This is pumped up from salt pans and shrimp farms. That is why manatees are increasingly moving to the open sea, where the current is much stronger – as a result, mother and child sometimes lose sight of each other, writes the “Spiegel”.

Tico and Teco were nursed and cared for by employees of the organization Aquasis. Aquasis receives millions in contributions from the Brazilian state. The mission of the environmentalists: to protect and conserve endangered species and important habitats in Brazil. A focus is on manatees.

But Tico didn’t really want to at first. “He was a kid who worked. We were never sure: can he do it?” said the veterinarian and head of Aquasis, Vitor Luz, to the reporters of “Spiegel”. He also says that although he tends to look at the whole species and its role in the waters, looking, instead of the individual, Tico has become dear to him:

And Tico finally ate.

Teco died in the care of Aquasis five years after the brothers were rescued. Sand blocked his breathing holes. When the nurses went to check on the two brothers in their pool in the morning, Tico held the dead Teco tightly against him.

The timid Tico now had to do without the daring Teco. Unlike Teco, Tico never had a very close relationship with his goalkeepers – which gave them hope for a release. “Animals that avoid humans have better survival rates outdoors,” Luz told Der Spiegel.

In July 2022 the time had come: Tico and his GPS tracker returned to the wild after extensive training.

Tico in Venezuela

On the first day off, Tico has just explored the area. Then he started his journey. The animal species Luz showed the “Mirror” the evaluation of the GPS data – Tico sometimes swam 70 kilometers a day. Manatees usually live very locally anchored and generally never travels more than 7 kilometers in a day.

But Tico swam and swam. Once it got entangled in a fishing net and Aquasis employees had to free the colossus. Luz even considered canceling the release at the time, he reveals to the “Mirror”.

On the 24th day of his journey, Tico left Brazilian territory. He raced through the waters of French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana before reaching Tobago. At times he seemed to have lost his way. Aquasis researchers kept losing sight of him.

Tico certainly won’t get lost today. Because the manatee now lives in captivity again in a pool of the Parque Bararida in Barquisimeto in Venezuela. The zoo’s director, Juan Rodríguez, is excited about Tico – the manatee is like a child to him.

But why is Tico living in human care again? After his epic journey of more than 4000 kilometers, Tico was simply too weak and needed medical attention.

For the zoo, Tico is doubly valuable. On the one hand, it is a crowd pleaser – the ministry really markets the animal via Instagram – and on the other hand, the Parque Bararida in Barquisimeto is the only zoo in Venezuela that breeds manatees. However, the female that owns the zoo belongs to a different subspecies of manatee – the potential offspring are therefore at risk of being born with genetic defects.

The state affair

For the Aquasis team, the presence of Tico in Venezuela is not a bad sign in itself. After all, he’s still alive.

However, the Brazilians want Tico back. In September, the BBC wrote that it was arranging Tico’s repatriation to Brazil with Venezuelan authorities. Brazil wants to train him again for reintroduction so that he can meet females of his subspecies in his ancestral waters. And so he can finally contribute to the conservation of the manatees in Brazil.

But Venezuela does not want to. The official authorities buck. The zoo director Rodríguez tells the “Mirror”:

For a former vet at the Venezuela zoo, it’s clear why the zoo won’t let Tico go: money. A zoo-born manatee can fetch $80,000 to $100,000 in an international sale.

The Venezuelan vet sees only one option for Tico to return to Brazil – to his bitches: Lula needs to speak to Maduro. In that respect, the “Mirror” sees a clear line on the horizon: “Lula, one hears, has now been informed.” (yum)