My patients, My life

     At last count, in the past month, there have been eight pelicans through the clinic that are in or were in rehab down at FWMA.  No two of them were sick or injured for the same reason, so treating them is a challenging and, at the same time, rewarding proposition. 

Brown Pelican in flight

     If you have ever had the pleasure of meeting a Brown Pelican up close and personal you understand what I am about to say.  They are delightful, curious, intelligent and playful birds.  They deal with the stress of injury and confinement  with relative ease and because of that they make good patients.  It is good that they possess all of those wonderful attributes because the downside of pelican care is, without a doubt, they have to be just about the nastiest creatures on earth.

     Pelies eat an all fish diet and they eat lots of them.  A pelican in rehab has to eat more than a free living one because he is recovering from illness or injury which increases his energy demands. Lots of fish means lots of poop – peli poo.  They squirt it, complete with the squishy noise, and it splats when it lands. As you might imagine, it stinks to high heaven and I swear those clowns grin at you when they score a hit on your foot. I love ‘em tho and you will, undoubtedly, be reading many pelican stories in the future because they get themselves into all sorts of trouble.

     I wrote an article in a recent edition of the Florida Wild Mammal Association newsletter about pelicans and all of the wonderful adaptations that they possess to survive in their niche.  They swim, they fly with poetic grace and profound skill, and they dive from fifty feet in the air headlong into the water to catch their fish dinners.  They have all of these wonderful tools to survive but paradoxically they must have all of them as well.  A  pelican that can’t fly or swim will die, sadly.  It is a hard, unforgiving world out there.  We humans will never appreciate the life or death struggles that go on all around us as we wander down life’s pathway. 

     A pelican that I want to tell you about we called Shelly.  Chris can define fractured bones in bird wings with uncanny precision. When she brought Shelly into the clinic to confirm and evaluate a wing fracture she told me she was also concerned that she was not eating well and was clearly not a “well” pelican.  We X-rayed her wing and were pleased to find a ”green stick” fracture in her ulna that should heal nicely without surgery. 

Shelly's abdominal X-ray

  We were also saddened by the presence of a shotgun pellet in Shelly’s wing.  Although the pellet in the wing was causing no problem we thought it wise to X-ray her abdomen as well.  I was sickened at the sight of not one, but two hooks deep in her G.I. track. 

     Shelly went straight to surgery to attempt to remove the hooks from her stomach. Many times, these hooks have varying lengths of fishing line still attached to them which often does significantly more damage than the hook itself.  The surgery on this lucky bird went well.  We retrieved both hooks, with only a short section of line  from her stomach  without difficulty. She recovered and is now eating well and, of course, pooping well too.  She is about to have the splint removed from her wing and will soon get to rejoin her friends in the bay.  I will have a video of that release for you when that happy day arrives.

Chris Beatty and I with a Brown Peli for surgery

    The part of this story that is the most difficult for me to tell is the “WHY?”.  For God’s sake, why does this creature have to suffer a long and painful death from fish hooks lodged in her gut?  I suppose it is best that I leave that one alone for now.  I have seen so much suffering at the hands of my fellow humans that I won’t assume that this one was malicious.  Yeah, and she accidentally shot herself too. Oops, there I go again.

     I will leave this as I started, on a happy note. Shelly will soon be free and I will soon tell you some more pelican cronicles. In the mean time, if you have not actually met a peli, you should. If you like, it would be my pleasure to introduce you to one.  I bet you will smile when you do. You know where to find me.