The miracle bird

Kathrine Alderman
ECB Publishing, Inc.

The North Florida Wildlife Center (NFWC), located at 1386 Cook Rd. in Lamont, now has an American White Pelican in its care. Due to injuries, the pelican, who they are still deciding a name for, came to the NFWC from Illinois and has been on a journey of recovery with them.

Unlike the Brown Pelicans we're used to, the American White Pelican migrates, which is why it is only seen in the panhandle during the winter. During most of the year, they live inland, in landlocked states, around freshwater, such as Michigan, Utah, Illinois, Colorado and Wyoming—the central northern United States—and then they migrate to the coast for the winter.

Bigger than the Brown Pelican, the American White Pelican is the second-largest flying bird in North America.
Unfortunately for the pelican being cared for by the NFWC, he won't be flying anymore. Though the NFWC isn't entirely sure what happened, they have made deductions based on the injured bird's wounds. In total, he has three major injuries, the most prominent being he is missing the majority of one of his wings. They can tell the wound was caused by blunt force trauma, getting hit by some type of land or water vehicle, causing the portion of the wing still attached to hang limp until it eventually rotted off and healed as well as it could without treatment. The other two significant injuries, they assume, came from the same source, and guess that it was a large fishing hook. The wounds appear on his neck and bill as large gashes. Their best guess is that the hook got stuck in his bill and the line wrapped around his neck, causing the bill to rip from the hook and the neck to be gashed by the taut fishing line.

These bill and neck injuries provide a strong moral story and learning experience for what not to do with fishing gear. The panhandle and Big Bend Area is only about an hour from the coast and is full of freshwater streams, lakes and rivers. If you don't pick up your fishing gear properly or dispose of it when it's broken, it can cause significant damage to animals in the area.

This pelican isn't the first animal the NFWC has received with a hook injury. It is, unfortunately, common. They even had another white pelican come to them, but it didn't survive. Due to his injuries, the pelican being cared for now will never be released back out into the wild.

As he eats fish, it can get expensive to keep him fed, so if you would like to sponsor him, 20 dollars will feed the pelican for a week! If you would like more information or to reserve a tour of the NFWC, you can call them at (850) 347-0921.