Sick pelicans showing up in Monterey and Santa Cruz County
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV)- Native Animal Rescue in Santa Cruz County has been rescuing 3-5 Brown Pelicans a day recently due to the lack of fish in the area.
The organization says before April 18 they received 7 pelicans, but in the last two weeks they've taken care of 109 starving or injured pelicans. 29 have died and 50 had to be transferred.
It's unclear why there aren't any fish and the issue is also hitting parts of Southern California, too.
Pelicans have also shown up sick in Monterey County, too.
“A pelican should fly away when you approach them and these poor pelicans are completely unable to, and they desperately need our help," Beth Brookhouser the vice president marketing & communications at SPCA said.
Along the Monterey Bay, the SPCA has rescued around 52 pelicans since late April... now, Beth says they're at 63 rescued pelicans.
Additionally, the Native Animal Rescue of Santa Cruz County has seen over 120 pelicans since April 8th, and just this morning, sent out 26 of those birds to the International Bird Rescue.
These rescue facilities have been swarmed with calls of sick and weak pelicans showing up in strange places.
“They often end up disoriented, sometimes going into restaurants, shops, one even walked into a bar, Red Feather said.
According to the SPCA, it takes up to 25 to 50 pounds of fish every day to feed the pelicans and when they aren’t getting enough fish, they often end up on the beach, not being able to fly away at all.
"The pelicans that are washing up are about half the weight that they should be, due to the lack of fish in the water right now," Red Feather a Wildlife Technician for Native Animal Rescue of Santa Cruz County said. "It's our job is to feed them fish and get them back up to a healthy weight so that we can release them.”
On their busiest day, animal rescue receives calls about every 5 to 10 minutes. They often bring back four or five pelicans.
“We are providing fluids to get them feeling a little bit better, we’re also drawing blood to make sure there’s no other underlying issue as we are starting the slow re-feeding process," Brookhouser said.
SPCA mentioned that it’s important if you come across a distressed pelican, to stay with it until the rescue team is sent out.
“Sometimes people call us and they say they saw a pelican on Del Monte beach five hours ago, which unfortunately is not a rescue, we can't go out because it is so massive and we don’t know where that pelican may have gone in the past five hours," Brookhouser said. "If you could keep the pelican in your site and call us, we can respond.”
If you notice a pelican that needs help, contact Native Animal Rescue at 831-462-0726 or the SPCA at 831-373-2631
