Environment

Pelicans Mysteriously Falling from West Coast Sky

by Amy Judd | January 8, 2009 at 02:43 pm

260 views | 14 Recommendations | 7 comments

Hundreds of pelicans have been falling from the sky on the west coast of the United States - literally. Some have crashed into cars and boats, while others are found miles inland and some are even run over on the road.

Rescue workers are wondering if this is caused by some type of virus, or from pollution in the ocean after the California fires. Some birds even have swollen feet. The birds have been found from Oregon to California, to Mexico.

"These birds are on the freeway, getting run over," said Jay Holcomb, executive director of the rescue center in San Pedro. "A bunch we've seen have been hit. They've been landing on yards five miles inland. When some of the people have captured them in parking lots, they just sit in the corner. They just go pick them up."
"Maybe the weather has been particularly difficult on them," said Heather Nevill, a veterinarian tracking the problem for the International Bird Rescue Research Center. "Maybe the fish stocks are particularly low. It might be more than one thing, all coming together at once."

Veterinarians and volunteers are trying to nurse as many birds as they can back to health, but it is too expensive to look after all of them.

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Karenke4

at 17:09 on January 8th, 2009

I hope this isn't some sort of 'canary in the coal mine' scenario.

Paschen

at 02:20 on January 9th, 2009

I have never heard of this before, at leas not with Pelicans.

Miriam Mannak

at 04:06 on January 9th, 2009

I have heard about fish and shrimp falling from the sky - that happend after they were swept up by a hurricane or cyclone. Poor birds ....

Fripouille

at 07:16 on January 9th, 2009

This is so strange! Does anyone know if this happens when they get to the coast or are they being found in the sea far out into the Ocean?

Dunno why, maybe it's the picture. I just find this to be very sad.

Sara Swenne

at 08:57 on January 9th, 2009

How sad to hear about these deaths. I hope they'll soon find out what's wrong! I took this photograph during an internship at the Royal Rotterdam Zoo during there feeding time.

Sara Swenne has contributed a photo to this story.