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Dangers and ThreatsTo Brown Pelicans
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Dangers to Brown Pelicans
Brown pelicans of every age sometimes develop the regrettable habit of frequenting fishing docks for handouts. The birds may become so tame and accustomed to being fed that they will try to intercept fishing lures being cast into the water. Too often this ends up with a bird having a hook impaled in its body or snagged in its pouch. Or the pelican may become helplessly entangled in the fishing line. If the a fishing hook rips a pelican's pouch, the pelican could starve. A good number of brown pelicans brought to rehabilitation centers are there to have their pouches repaired. Past Pesticide Damage Brown pelican populations were severely damaged in many parts of the country by the pesticide DDT. The DDT caused the adults to produce thinner egg shells that could not survive the incubation process. Fortunately, most of Florida's brown pelicans, at least, escaped this situation because the pesticide was not widely used throughout the state. Florida's current brown pelican population is estimated at about 20,000 birds. Elsewhere in the Southeast, the declining brown pelican populations, along with those of the bald eagle, were important signals that something in the environment was very, very wrong. Go To How Brown Pelicans Feed Go To Brown Pelican Breeding & Nesting Go To How Brown Pelicans Fly & Dive Go To Where to See Nesting Brown Pelicans Go To Natural History Homepage |
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