You realize, of course, that I will be posting animal interest stories to you from time to time..
Pelican's city adventure cut short
By Arek Sarkissian II
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A wayward pelican that was found Monday morning in Midtown Tucson is being cared for at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
Arizona Game and Fish officers found the California brown pelican on a side street near East Speedway and North Country Club Road, said Scott Richardson, urban wildlife specialist with the agency.
On average, wildlife officials said, three to four pelicans are found in Tucson in a given year. A white pelican was found at West Grant Road and Interstate 10 last month. It was treated and released back into the wild.
The male pelican found Monday was tired, hot and hungry, and didn't put up much of a fight when captured, Richardson said.
"All we did was throw a net over him, grabbed his bill and he was in the truck," he said.
Richardson said he took the bird to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where a team led by Shaw-nee Riplog-Peterson, curator of mammology and ornithology, is nursing the adult bird back to health.
"He's living the good life now -all the fish you can eat," Richardson said.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum keeps the pelican's favorite food, smelt, in stock at all times for just such occasions, Riplog-Peterson said.
The bird will not be put on display during his stay.
The pelican may have been blown to Tucson by winds from a passing weather system, Richardson said.
National Weather Service officials said strong winds from the Gulf of California probably were what caused the bird's misguided adventure.
The California brown pelican is an endangered species that lives mainly along the coasts of Mexico and California.
It eventually will be taken to Sea World in San Diego, where it will be re-introduced into the wild, Riplog-Peterson said. |
