Leslie Sex Female Date Tagged 03/20/01 Place Tagged Port of the Islands (25.958N -81.509W ) Background Leslie is a large female manatee that was captured at Port of the Islands on March 20, 2001. At the time of capture she weighed 1430 pounds and had a total length of 312 cm. At capture, Leslie was pregnant. In May 2001 she was spotted for the first time with a very small female calf. In November 2003, Jim Reid changed the PTT on Leslie and was unable to verify if the calf was still with her. We suspect that the weaning process will occur soon if it hasn't already. Because of this, the next few visuals that we get of Leslie will be important so that we can keep track of how long the calf stayed with her. Leslie and TNP-11 "Anna" are the two manatees with the longest history with us. Both have been tagged and tracked consistently since their original captures. Both have provided us with almost 3 years of interesting data and movement patterns. Since her initial capture, Leslie has consistently used the areas to the southeast of POI in the Chokoloskee Bay area. She frequently swims up the Turner and Lopez River's for freshwater and feeds on the seagrass beds off of the outer islands including Jewel, Demijohn, Turtle, and Pavilion Keys in the Chokoloskee and Rabbit Key Pass areas. She makes occasional trips back to POI as well. Leslie is again very unique in the area that she and her calf are using. She has continually used the Chokoloskee area with very few trips back to POI over the years. Her home range is the eastern Choko. Bay area with most of her feeding taking place off Demijohn and Jewel Keys and regular trips up the Turner and Lopez River's and into the Cross Bays for freshwater. For the past two winters, Leslie has chosen to go up into the canal that runs along US 41 (east of Everglades City) during strong cold fronts rather than go back to POI. She is the only tagged female who has exhibited these moves. After observing her in this area the first time, we realized that there were several cow/calf pairs using this site in winter. Leslie was pregnant when she was captured in Mar01 and in May01 was sighted with a small calf. At last sighting she still had her calf with her but we expect she will wean it soon. Copyright 2004 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form