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As we showed you last night, Michael Holston – The Real Tarzan is in Belize having close encounters with all the animals here. Well, today he got to cuddle a baby manatee after it was rescued from a trio of dangerous dolphins. And really that wasn't part of the schedule for today. The plan was for Tarzan and manatee expert Jamal Galvez to meet up and talk about manatees, but Tarzan got to get up close and personal with the calf. We met Galvez and Tarzan at the Radisson pier as they brought in the injured calf from Caye Caulker.

Jamal Galvez - Sea to Shore Alliance Program Coordinator
"I was on my way to Caye Caulker to meet with the Tarzan man to talk about manatees, to highlight manatees to bring some awareness, as you know he is in Belize trying to spread awareness so people know what Belize has is a treasure and to highlight the problems of the manatees as well. So on the way out to meet him I got the call that there was a baby manatee at the dock at Caye Caulker waiting for me. I was like… weird.. But I mean, I got there and there is this young calf there and the story is that the fly fisherman was fishing in Long Caye and he saw 3 dolphins trashing the young calf up against the mangroves he tried to get the dolphins away but to no avail so they kept on consistently. The mother was there for a while and they kept trashing him and he was afraid that they would have eventually killed the calf so he decided to bring it back to the island. The goal is never to separate a mother from its calf but in this case I totally understand and for people who may see this situation I encourage people to call it in so we know what the situation is, we can give you better advice on it but he did what he thought is best so the animal is in good care, some scratches, it is a young male, still has the umbilical cord maybe two, three weeks old."

Mike Holston - The Real Tarzan
"It is a blessing to be able to come here and do actual work with the manatee man himself. I learned a lot today, I learned a lot from my new friends over here. They thought me a lot about manatees that I can't learn from Wikipedia or other people in the United States. There is stuff he knows about manatees in Belize that he doesn't know in Florida and vice versa so it is good to come here and be a sponge and observe the knowledge from gurus like Jamal."

The calf will be taken to the rehabilitation center in Sarteneja. It will be fed and taken care of until it can be released back into the wild.