California brown pelicans found frail and far from home
The coastal birds have been seen on city highways, runways and in backyards, and they share symptoms of disorientation, fatigue and bruising. The phenomenon is stumping experts.
Wildlife rescuers from San Diego to San Francisco suddenly are facing a distressing biological mystery: Disoriented and bruised California brown pelicans are landing on highways and airport runways and in farm fields, alleys and backyards miles from their normal coastal haunts.
In the last week, the big brown birds known for flying in formation over beaches have been reported wobbling across Culver Boulevard in Playa del Rey and on a Los Angeles International Airport runway. Two dead pelicans were found on the 110 Freeway. Elsewhere, one smacked into a car.
"We're a little freaked out by this," said Rebecca Dmytryk, spokeswoman for the nonprofit WildRescue. "We've never seen anything like it."
On Monday, the International Bird Rescue Research Center in San Pedro and other animal rehabilitation centers continued to receive pelicans of all ages found dead or dying in what Dmytryk described as "the oddest of places." Many of them shared symptoms including disorientation, extreme fatigue and bruises inside their pouches.
Bird rescuers were rushing pelican blood samples and carcasses to state wildlife authorities and laboratories that specialize in detecting potentially fatal algae toxins, such as domoic acid, that have plagued the species in past years. But domoic acid typically sickens marine animals in spring and summer months, not in January.
"We just became aware of this problem a few days ago," said David Caron, a professor of biological sciences at USC who was analyzing pelican blood samples sent to him from throughout the state. "By the end of the week, we'll have information that should tell us whether or not these animals test positive for phytoplankton toxins."
At a cost of about $500 to $1,000 per bird, veterinarians and volunteers were tending to growing numbers of feathered patients with intravenous fluids, medications, warm enclosures and a steady diet of smelt and squid. Sick birds started arriving in late December, and many of them rebounded within a matter of weeks.
"Pelicans have been hammered over the years by oil spills, DDT, domoic acid, fishing line, gunshots, starvation and parasites -- we're expert at dealing with those problems," said David Weeshoff, a volunteer at the San Pedro center. "But right now, we're scratching our heads over the cause of this event. Not a good deal."
