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Sick, starving pelicans hit West Coast — again

January 27th, 2010, 3:17 pm · 20 Comments · posted by

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Sick and starving pelicans are once again appearing along the West Coast by the hundreds, filling bird rescue centers and sometimes begging food from people on affected beaches. starvingpelicansss

It’s the second year in a row that starving birds, possibly victims of sudden cold weather and vanishing prey, have descended on the West Coast in droves.

About 30 pelicans were being treated Wednesday at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, said wildlife director Debbie McGuire.

“The pelicans are coming in hungry and weak,” McGuire said. “We’re not giving them any medication, other than nutrition, and they’re coming along, doing just fine.”

McGuire also was dealing with at least four birds rescued from an oil spill in a Huntington Beach flood control channel; six others had been at the center but were sent to another care facility.

The onslaught of sick pelicans for a second year is raising difficult questions for rescuers:  Is it a natural phenomenon, or can the cause be traced back to humans?

“Are we messing with nature if we help these birds?” asked Rebecca Dmytryk of WildRescue, a bird rescue group in central California. “Or has man messed up their nature, and we should help them?”

Last year, a sudden cold snap off the Oregon coast was blamed for causing frostbite and malnutrition among large numbers of pelicans, many of which then made their way south.

This year, many of the brown pelicans, a species recently removed from the endangered list,  lingered along the Oregon coast far later in the year than normal, something that has been happening increasingly over the past three years, said Roy Lowe, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and project leader for wildlife refuges along the Oregon coast.

The pelicans took advantage of abundant fish until downwelling — a fall and winter phenomenon in which surface water is carried deeper — reduced the nutrients available. The fish left the area and the lingering pelicans began to starve. The birds also were pummeled by a series of powerful storms off Oregon, Lowe said.

Many that tried to migrate south arrived in Southern California depleted and exhausted. Rescuers say the sick birds have been appearing over the past three weeks, possibly in a wave moving south with more arriving now in Southern California.

The sick and dying birds have turned up from Newport, Oregon to San Diego.

While the shifts in prey and ocean conditions could be linked to climate change, Lowe and other scientists say there is not enough data to make a firm connection.

“Ask me 20 years from now,” he said. “It’s plausible that it’s associated with changes in the ocean that are associated with climate change, but there’s just no way to know that right now.”

Necropsies — the animal equivalent of autopsies — were performed on 18 of the Oregon birds by Deborah Jaques, a wildlife biologist and pelican specialist who owns the Pacific Eco Logic consulting firm.

“Most of these dead I’ve opened up have no fat reserves, so starvation seems to be the biggest factor,” she said.

In some areas where pelicans normally shy away from people, they instead have been approaching beachgoers to beg for food.

In one pelican stomach, she found a chicken bone, suggesting people are giving the pelicans improper food.

Another pelican that became a nuisance at a shrimp processing plant was beaten to death with a shovel, she said.

Feeding the pelicans is an enormous expense, said McGuire of the Huntington Beach rescue center; she asks anyone wishing to make a donation to go to the group’s Web site, or call at 714-374-5587.

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 20 Comments

  • Mischa says:
    January 27, 2010 at 3:35 pm

    Who beats a tired, hungry pelican to death? They should be smacked with a shovel too. Creep.

  • Dre says:
    January 27, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    I like this story but I think we have bigger issues. If there are homeless, hungry people in the world I think they should take priority over some pelicans. There it is now you guys can have fun with that. But it’s true let’s take care of our species 1st and then we can address mother nature and all of God’s creatures big and small.

  • GT says:
    January 27, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    “Another pelican that became a nuisance at a shrimp processing plant was beaten to death with a shovel”

    I hope this fellow gets the same as the one who killed the seagull last year.

    Please tell us the name of the processing plant.

  • DISCO says:
    January 27, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    I’d rather feed pelicans than Lazy bums, got a shovel for the lazy drunks of the world. Still despite our feelings to what phenomena can we attribute this?My best guesses are either;

    1. Too effective breeding/protection program causing artificial population bubble.

    2. External influences on food supply and habitat.

    I recently saw a flight of them low over the water near the river mouth, looked like they were cruising for a snack. Maybe fisherman and seals are snapping up the low lying fish. Has there been a corresponding decline in the flying fish population or worse are they being chased from harbors by wooden owls and other deterrents for more parasitic species.

  • hunterr83 says:
    January 27, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    Another welfare society being created right here. We already have enough welfare recipients. If there isn’t enough fish, then maybe that’s a sign there are too many pelicans in an area.

    • Rebecca says:
      January 27, 2010 at 6:16 pm

      Something like 30% of the small bait fish that pelicans thrive on are taken from the ocean and turned into fertilizer. Not too many pelicans – too many humans.

  • Hungry says:
    January 27, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    I agree with Dre, I think we should use this starving plethera of pelicans to help feed our homeless…

  • Janice Ruth Meiners says:
    January 27, 2010 at 4:26 pm

    I saw a pelican at HB begging for food sitting on the pier railing just waiting for food. I wish I would of had some fish to feed it. What else are they allowed to eat? I also saw the seagulls pull out trash on the pier and eat the remains of somebodys hamburger from Rubys. The pelican lost out on that meal. Is it ok to feed bread to them?

  • Chuck says:
    January 27, 2010 at 5:24 pm

    I went fishing at the Dana Point pier two nights ago and there was a brown pelican there that I thought was just really brave to approach so close. Now I get it, he was hungry. So I’m glad I did what I did. I understand that it is an infraction carrying a fine to feed the birds on the pier but I gave this one a mackerel that I had caught a few minutes earlier. He flew off with it and then returned and hung out til I gave him a bait squid. Then he was gone for good. Others on the pier had been shooing him and stomping their feet to scare him off But I had a feeling. I’m no tree hugger and if the choice was to feed a homeless person or a bird, the human wins every time. Fortunately I didn’t have to make that decision. I suggest to anyone who sees a pelican on the pier or anywhere else where you can feed it, do it. Risk it.

    • never ending fight for freedom says:
      January 27, 2010 at 5:27 pm

      Yo, Chuck, thats what they do, their just dumb birds.

      Sheese, are you people really this stupid?

  • andy levinson says:
    January 27, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    one landed in the street here in thousand oaks, ca yesterday…I don’t know what happen to it….it just landed and stopped where it was…..and wouldn’t move for cars

  • Surprised says:
    January 27, 2010 at 5:51 pm

    I don’t buy the cold theory. It has been a mild winter and the ocean is still moderately warm. I wonder if there are too many of them now. I was in La Jolla a few months ago and there were way more of those guys than I recall historically.

  • someone with a brain says:
    January 27, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    I’m glad there are people in this world like Chuck, someone who has both compassion and spell check.

  • Amber Nowlin says:
    January 27, 2010 at 9:45 pm

    For those of you who who think dont feed the birds just feed teh humans have you not seen Happy Feet ? I mean if its that hard to understand . its done so my 8 year old gets it .. If the birds run out of food wwe do to .and Some Birds are beneficial to us as welll .Once we mess it all up we cant go back . The recent oil spills are no help to any of us , People birds and fish .Its All a delicate balance people . . I spent my su mmers in HB Growing up and have wached the beaches change drastically over the years . I cant forget the oil blobs that stick to your feet or the loss of marine life in the Tidepools ,No sand dollars , No abelone and flying back home with an odd respirtory infection after swimming and .it.The redtides with scarlett jelly fish washing up like never before . . I took my son And I couldnt show him the things I had once seen . If we keep abusing it it will bite back and clean house .theyre not going to say its caused by overfishing here , they want to avoid the politics and just get on with their mission to help the birds get better . The bottom line is WE need to give all living things a chance to thrive or we will all have bigger issues to contend with .

  • Chris Reynolds says:
    February 9, 2010 at 2:17 pm

    OK.
    Today’s 2/9/2010 Press Telegram says the dead Pelicans are a result of pollution caused by the recent storms. SO WHICH IS IT!?! I wish you tree huggers would get on the same page at least. Quit messing with Darwin’s natural selection and stay out of the way.

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