Hundreds of the ungainly sea birds appear to have flown off course in search of food during their annual migration from the Baja California peninsula to British Columbia, with young pelicans turning up in Arizona deserts, biologists said. Wildlife sanctuaries in California and Arizona have taken in scores of young birds found emaciated and injured over the past month, but veterinarians have been unable to link their plight to disease or pollution.
“They are starving but we do think there are plenty of anchovies,” said Judy St. Leger, a veterinarian at San Diego’s SeaWorld a?uatic animal park. “It is an unusual and very extraordinary event.”
The large, grayish-brown sea bird with the pouched bill was threatened with extinction in the 1970s because of the introduction of the pesticide DDT. It is still listed as endangered, according to the California Department of Fish and Game.
Naturalist Sandy Cate of the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the phenomenon appears linked to an explosion in pelican numbers combined with changes in Pacific Ocean temperatures.
“Anchovy can be going down deeper or out farther away than they might be normally,” Cate said. “By nature, animals do whatever it takes to find food, water, and shelter. There is no food to sustain the numbers that were born this year.”
Cate said the young birds may be mistaking interstate highways for waterways, which would explain why numbers of them have been found along roadways with broken wings or legs.
SeaWorld has released about 10 of the 60 young pelicans it took in earlier in the month, but the facility is still trying to pin down the source of their distress, SeaWorld’s St. Leger said.
“Right now we are trying to help the birds that are coming to us… and trying to give them a second chance,” she said.