Saved From Desert : Pelican Tries Again to Be a Sea Bird

A baby California brown pelican, nursed back to health from malnutrition, was released Thursday from a dock at Sea World.

The bird, believed to be 3 to 4 months old, was found wandering in the Arizona desert in June. Scott Drieschman, Sea World’s curator of birds, said the pelican apparently was hatched near the Sea of Cortez in Mexico and began tracking its food northward along the Colorado River before it “just ran out of gas and food.”

Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Arizona asked Sea World to intervene since the theme park has a rehabilitation program for the endangered brown pelican, as well as other marine birds.

Treated at Sea World

After the bird’s arrival at Sea World on June 7, it was given a physical, treated for external and internal parasites, given fluids and, later, frozen herring fortified with vitamins and minerals, Drieschman said. Sea World employees named the pelican Saguaro.

Once it became active in its pen, the bird was given another physical to make sure it was fit for release.

“We are basically kicking it out of the nest again when we turn it out in the bay to fend for itself,” Drieschman said.

Sea World workers treat an average of 250 pelicans a year--some for rips in the birds’ pouches caused by fishing hooks. A ripped pouch will hamper a pelican’s ability to catch fish, Drieschman said.

Two more undernourished pelicans were turned over to Sea World by Arizona officials Wednesday night.