California Brown Pelican Mass Starvation Event

The following story about a brown pelican was shared with us by International Bird Rescue in California.

This past May and June, brown pelicans all over the California coast had trouble obtaining food in a mass starvation event. This beautiful adult was rescued back in May off the Santa Barbara coast and joined hundreds of pelicans in care at International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center.

Like many of the pelicans that came in at the time, his primary issue was severe emaciation, hypothermia, and anemia. It was so bad in his case that he was too weak to stand for three days and needed to float in a pool in order to exercise his legs.

Intravenous fluids as well as tubings of EmerAid IC Piscivore were essential for stabilizing this bird and helping him to gain strength. Once this bird had stabilized for three days, he started to self-feed and was able to stand again, allowing him to progress to outside housing with the other pelicans in the event.

Once outside in the large aviary, he progressed even more. During this event we often had more than 100 brown pelicans in our large aviary; thankfully, pelicans are sociable birds that appear to enjoy roosting together. In the aviary, he was able to rebuild his muscles while perching, swimming, and flying.

After a month in care and gaining 50 percent of his weight back, the bird was healthy enough to be released back into the wild. This pelican, along with many others from the event, benefitted from the initial care and stabilization with the use of EmerAid IC Piscivore.