The San Pedro nonprofit group charged with treating sick pelicans is suffering an affliction of its own: strapped finances.
That’s because a cold and starving pelican eats a whopping 6 pounds of fish a day — half its body weight.
Hundreds of brown pelicans turned up dead or ailing along the West Coast in January after what researchers said was a miscalculation: They strayed to the far northern edge of their range, stayed too long and ran out of food. When they came south, they found food scant here too.
So they turned up listless on beaches or begging for food in parking lots, and were rescued by San Pedro’s Oiled Bird Care and Education Center.
Read the full story here.
— Jill Leovy
Photo: Afternoon feeding time creates a frenzy around the outside aviary at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in San Pedro, where scores of pelicans have been rehabilitated and returned to the wild. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
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