It’s official: June Cleaver — a 230-plus-pound loggerhead, not the mom on “Leave It to Beaver” — swims away with the latest Photo of the Week honors.
The turtle named for the matriarch on the classic TV show was found in distress trying to lay eggs earlier this summer. June, obviously as devoted a mother as that famous TV character, was taken to the Brevard Zoo’s Sea Turtle Healing Center. There, she spent two months recuperating. With some TLC and a much-deserved rest, June finally laid more than 113 eggs — which were given to biologists for burial on the beach and remain in incubation — in a Healing Center pool.
And in this photo by FLORIDA TODAY’s senior photographer Malcolm Denemark, June splashes her way back into the sea after her Sept. 3 release at Howard Futch Memorial Park in Melbourne.
A large and awed audience showed up for the release, and Denemark, a veteran of sea-turtle watching, was one of the awed.
“Shooting sea turtles and rocket launches are two of my favorite assignments,” he said. “And watching turtles in distress heal and go back to the ocean — that’s always a good thing.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Leave it to June Cleaver: Sea turtle heals and heads back to ocean | Photo of the Week
Reporting by Britt Kennerly, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
