What is sickening and killing California's brown pelicans?
By John Platt Hundreds of brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) have been found sick or dead off the coasts of California in the past month, the victims of a mysterious ailment that has scientists baffled. When found alive, the birds appear hungry and disoriented. But necropsies performed on dead pelicans found that they had been eating, so the casualties don’t appear to be from lack of prey. But their stomachs did contain unusual prey, like squid—not the sardines and anchovies they normally dine on. Many of the pelicans also appear to have some sort of unidentified residue on their feathers, which may affect the feathers’ insulating ability. “When we wash them, you can tell something is coming off. The water is discolored, like when you wash really dirty clothes,” Jay Holcomb, director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) in Cordelia, Calif., told The Mercury News. “That’s not normal.” Scientists don’t know where this residue is coming from or what it is exactly, but so far theories include side effects from red tide or pollution runoff into the ocean. Many of the birds coming into the center suffer from hypothermia. Holcomb told the newspaper that if the birds are cleaned soon enough, they regain their health within two weeks. So far, afflicted pelicans brought to rescue centers have had about a 60 percent survival rate. … A similar, also unexplained pelican die-off occurred in January 2009. …
