Cincinnati Zoo's rescued baby manatee returns to the wild

A baby manatee rescued and rehabilitated by the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden returned to the wild Thursday as a healthy, hefty 2-year-old. Rescuers discovered Bambam with a severe case of the manatee-specific ailment "cold stress syndrome," a condition manatees develop when falling water temperatures slow their already-slow metabolisms, kill their appetites and weaken their normally "outstanding" immune systems. Manatees who don't find their way to warmer waters can starve to death or succumb to disease as their bodies fail to adapt. Bambam's rescuers took him first to Sea World and later to the Cincinnati Zoo, where he could gain weight and learn to be a manatee from old hands (well, fins) in Manatee Springs.