Several years ago I saw TV footage of Australian Pelicans pursuing, catching
and swallowing rats on a rubbish tip.
I have also read an account of Pelicans killing young Silver Gulls, at the
runner
stage, but they were unable to swallow them because the wings flapped open
and got in the way.
This was in an early issue of "Australian Bird Watcher" - heading was
"Pelicans feeding (or preying) on feather".
They have also been known to swallow little dogs. I have heard an eye-witness
account of one seizing and devouring a Chihuahua puppy on a Gold Coast beach.
It is often stated that this sort of thing is an Urban Myth. It's not.
Anthea Fleming
>
> On 07/05/2009, at 11:10 , Chris Baxter wrote:
>>
>> Lake Eyre North in year 2000, studying an 18,000 pair Banded Stilt
>> breeding
>> event, an Australian Pelican would walk into the edge of the colony
>> each day
>> and help itself to newly hatched chicks. It would devour a number of
>> the
>> fluffy white young by snatching them up in its beak and then
>> gobbling them
>
>
> There are at least a couple of You Tube videos of Pelicans eating
> Pigeons so it's not terribly surprising to learn they have learnt to
> predate on hatchlings. If you search 'pelican eats pigeon' on you tube
> it gets a few videos but mostly of the same one - warning this might
> upset some people - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO5ifLzLYiU (this
> one is in St James park London) and there's this one in Ukraine:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_creuAf-t0
>
>
>
>
> ===============================
> www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
> send the message:
> unsubscribe
> (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
> to:
> ===============================
>
>
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
