San Juan, Aug 4 (EFE).– Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, or DRNA, personnel are caring for a manatee calf rescued off a beach in northwestern Puerto Rico, environmental officials said Tuesday.

The marine mammal was spotted on Monday off Shacks beach in the city of Isabela, Natural and Environmental Resources Secretary Carmen Guerrero Perez said in a statement.

“The agency’s officers and biologists gave it time so the mother would show up, but after three hours and in light of the fact that the creature needed protection and to be fed, they went into the water to rescue it,” Guerrero Perez said.

The newborn male manatee calf weighs 26 kilos (57 pounds) and had part of the umbilical cord still attached to its body, Guerrero Perez said.

The calf did not have any serious injuries, having sustained just a scratch on its head that was apparently caused by hitting the rocks on the beach, the DRNA secretary said.

The baby manatee was transported to Arecibo, a city in northern Puerto Rico, where workers from the Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center, or PRMCC, at the Inter American University took custody of him, Guerrero Perez said.

The calf was taken to the PRMCC’s facility in Bayamon, where it will be cared for, the DRNA secretary said.

PRMCC personnel are taking turns feeding the calf every three hours and the marine mammal is being checked daily by veterinarian Antonio Velez Rivera.

Manatees, or sea cows, can weigh up to 500 kilos (1,100 pounds) and measure up to five meters (16 feet) long when fully grown.

West Indian manatees (Trichechus manatus) live in rivers and estuaries in the Caribbean

, especially on the coast of Puerto Rico. EFE