GetBirding.com

Pelicans are spectacular birds, they always look so stately as they cruise overhead in formation. However, it seems the Idaho Fish and Game Department have their hands full as local anglers are pushing to have pelican numbers controlled because they’re eating into the Yellowstone cuttthroat trout numbers. A management plan, focused on a culling and breeding management approach, is out for public comment. The Fort Mill Times had this to say:

“We’ve had a lot more comment than I think anyone thought we would get one way or another,” Sallabanks said. “They are across the board: A lot of the individual comments from sportsmen agree with the plan because they feel the pelicans are competing with them for fishing opportunities. But we’ve also had, especially in the past week, a number of organized comments from organizations or biologists that think we ought to be looking at options other than lethal control.” [more here]

This story highlights a common debate. Through human intervention a species increases in number, which as a result places increased pressure on another species. The question is, should humans step in and alter the scenario further? Okay, this case is slightly different, a handful of fisherman are worried about what they’re going to do on a Saturday afternoon when all the trout have vanished, but the scenario is the same.

This situation isn’t unique to Idaho. The Great White Pelican of Southern Africa has a similar reputation, but in this case it’s not fish. Once an uncommon visitor to the Western Cape of South Africa, Great White Pelican numbers started to increase with reduced breeding disturbance and improved food supplies. The pelicans are thriving on Dassen Island, an off-shore refuge, which they share with colonies of breeding seabirds. Pelicans in the Western Cape have taken to scavenging meat scraps from chicken and pig farms which, coupled with the reduction in breeding disturbance, has catapulted breeding success rates. A nasty result of this population increase is that the pelicans on Dassen and other islands have been seen predating seabird chicks. The Avian Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town have been monitoring these pelicans:

Many seabird species face threats that are currently diminishing their populations. With the pelicans themselves in decline worldwide, we face a difficult conservation dilemma: to continue the supply of extra food to the pelicans in the farms, and allow their population expansion in the Western Cape, or to control somehow their numbers, reducing predation on other seabirds and the risk of spreading diseases from the domestic animals into the wild populations on the off-shore islands. [more here]

The pelicans on Dassen Island have been predating Cape Cormorants, Swift Terns and Cape Gulls, but what is more concerning is that Cape Gannets, a threatened species, are being targeted on Malgas Island. 

WildlifeExtra.com published an interesting article about the Cape Gannet’s plight. 

The decline in the colony on Malgas is due to the dangers the chicks are exposed to, Mullers discovered. Among other things, pelicans are a particular threat. These birds originally only ate fish, but due to the lack of fish they’ve become accustomed to eating other birds. They’ve also learnt to eat slaughterhouse waste, present in large amounts at neighbouring pig farms. Mullers: ‘Pelicans are protected birds too. However now one protected bird species needs to be protected against another one. On Malgas you can see entire colonies of gannets being destroyed by pelicans – they can even swallow chicks weighing almost two kilos.’ [more here]

Some difficult decisions need to be made, and quickly!