Rehab for brown pelicans
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In the last two months about 130 young brown pelicans have been discovered, emaciated and ill, in a variety of unexpected places, from backyards to condo complexes to shopping-mall parking lots. Times Staff Writer Louis Sahagun reports on the efforts to rehabilitate the big brown birds, many of which have been admitted for special care at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in San Pedro:
‘We’re being inundated with as many as a dozen pelicans a day,’ said Jay Holcomb, executive director of the center. ‘We believe it’s because pelicans have done well this year and produced lots of young.’Therefore, he added, ‘the high number of ailing birds is actually a good sign.’Dan Anderson, professor of wildlife, fish and conservation biology at UC Davis, explained the problem.’A lot of these birds are basically starving to death,’ he said. ‘After three months of being fed in their breeding colonies, this year’s young pelicans are beginning to disperse from their nests with enough baby fat to tide them over for a few months while they learn to fish.’But after a few months, Anderson said, the birds ‘use up all that baby fat. That’s when they start showing up at rehabilitation centers.’
The San Pedro center has admitted 20 pelicans in the last week. It costs about $20 a day to rehabilitate a pelican; most of that expense goes for smelt and anchovies.