Scores of emaciated brown pelicans, too weak to fly, have been discovered on Southern California seashores within the final month and brought to an Orange County rescue heart, in line with its director.
“We’re getting dozens of calls,” Debbie McGuire, govt director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Heart in Huntington Seaside, mentioned on Saturday. “Persons are discovering them in parking tons and their backyards.”
The rescued pelicans, she mentioned, “are coming in at half their physique weight. They’re additionally very anemic.”
To date, she mentioned, it’s unclear why the pelicans, which feed on anchovies, sardines and mackerel, are affected by malnutrition.
McGuire mentioned that she contacted scientists on the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration final week, who instructed her that there was “loads of bait on the market” for the birds to feed on.
“We don’t know the trigger,” she mentioned. “They’re simply all ravenous.”
Overwhelmed by the variety of ailing birds, the wildlife heart has been erecting pup tents to make use of as pens, she mentioned.
Within the final month, the middle has taken in 89 brown pelicans, lots of them shortly dying, McGuire mentioned. Greater than 30 have survived, she mentioned, as the middle warmed them beneath warmth lamps and gave them fluids.
She mentioned the middle despatched tissue samples from the birds to labs for testing.
A comparable spike within the stranding of brown pelicans up and down the California coast occurred within the spring of 2022. The trigger has not been discovered.
The California brown pelican was listed as an endangered species a long time in the past after the unfold of the chemical DDT induced the shells of their eggs to skinny. The eggs grew to become so fragile that nesting moms crushed them.
After DDT was banned, the pelicans elevated in quantity. The birds have been faraway from the endangered species checklist in 2009.
Wildlife officers say that anybody discovering an ailing pelican mustn’t contact or attempt to feed them. They urge individuals to as a substitute name their native wildlife rehabilitation services. The Orange County heart might be reached at (714) 374-5587.
