What Are Busch Gardens Doing About Animals During Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma, originally making landfall in the Caribbean as a Category 5 storm, has now been downgraded to a tropical storm as it drenches Florida. But that doesn't mean that the storm didn't have a massive impact on the people, and the animals, that call the affected areas home. Check out the amazing ways animals were protected and rescued from the hurricane's wrath.

Manatees

Locals feeling "stir crazy" from the storm walked outside to find two beached manatees, stranded after waters receded in Florida's Sarasota Bay, Today.com reports. The community came together to get the manatees onto tapes and drag them back into the water.

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Dolphins

NBC News reporter Kerry Sanders joined a team of people who rescued two dolphins, both a baby and possibly its mother, that washed ashore on Marco Island, Florida.

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And before the storm, workers from the Cayo Guillermo dolphinarium moved dolphins to Cienfuegos, located on Cuba's southern coast, on September 8. According to Fox News, they were wrapped in wet towels and put on helicopters to make sure they were transported safely.

Osvaldo Gutierrez Gomez/Shutterstock

Flamingos

At Zoo Miami, flamingos were moved into a temporary enclosure, as were cheetahs and other birds at the zoo.

Wilfredo Lee AP

And at the Busch Gardens theme park in Tampa, they were marched in an orderly line into a safe indoor area.

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Sloths

Some animals literally went to jail, according to the Associated Press. Mo the sloth, below, was one of 250 animals moved to the Monroe County Jail in Florida after the humans who normally stay there were evacuated to Palm Beach County.

Sharks

Scientists had to evacuate nurse sharks from the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea, Florida. Overall, it evacuated two sharks and a loggerhead sea turtle to Atlanta.

Getty Images

Dogs

Palm Beach County Animal Control rescued 49 dogs and cats as the storm got closer and closer. And tragically, some of the pets were abandoned on purpose, let in yards or pens or even tied to trees and poles, WPTV reports. County officials promise they will prosecute residents who left their dogs behind.

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