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Taxonomy and systematics
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Etymology

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Taxonomy

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Living species

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Fossil record

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Description
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Air sacs

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Distribution and habitat

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Behaviour and ecology
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Breeding and lifespan

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Feeding

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Status and conservation
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Populations

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Culling and disturbance
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Parasites and disease

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Religion, mythology, and popular culture
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Pelican (disambiguation).

Pelican

Temporal range: late Eocene-

Recent, 36–0 Ma 

PreꞒ

J
 K

Pg

 Possible an early origin based on molecular

[1]

clock[2]

A great white pelican in breeding

condition flying over Walvis

Bay, Namibia.

Scientific classification

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Pelecaniformes

Family: Pelecanidae

Genus: Pelecanus
Linnaeus, 1758
 Type species

Pelecanus onocrotalus

Linnaeus, 1758

Species

8, see text

Pelicans (genus Pelecanus) are a genus of large water birds that make up

the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat
pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before
swallowing. They have predominantly pale plumage, except for the brown and Peruvian
pelicans. The bills, pouches, and bare facial skin of all pelicans become brightly
coloured before the breeding season.
The eight living pelican species have a patchy, seasonally-dependent yet global
distribution, ranging latitudinally from the tropics to the temperate zone. Pelicans are
absent from interior Amazonian South America, from polar regions and the open ocean;
at least one species is known to migrate to the inland desert of Australia's Red Centre,
after heavy rains create temporary lakes. White pelicans are also observed at the
American state of Utah's Great Salt Lake, for example, some 600 miles (965 km) from
the nearest coastline (the Pacific West Coast). They have also been seen hundreds of
miles inland in North America, having flown northwards along the Mississippi River and
other large waterways.
Long thought to be related to frigatebirds, cormorants, tropicbirds, and gannets and
boobies, pelicans instead are now known to be most closely related to
the shoebill and hamerkop storks (although these two birds are not
actually true 'storks'), and are placed in the
order Pelecaniformes. Ibises, spoonbills, herons, and bitterns have been classified in
the same order. Fossil evidence of pelicans dates back at least 36 million years to the
remains of a tibiotarsus recovered from late Eocene strata of Egypt that bears striking
similarity to modern species of pelican.[1] They are thought to have evolved in the Old
World and spread into the Americas; this is reflected in the relationships within the
genus as the eight species divide into Old World and New World lineages.[3] This
hypothesis is supported by fossil evidence from the oldest pelican taxa. [1]
 Pelicans at National Zoo, Bangladesh

Pelicans will frequent inland waterways but are most known for residing along maritime
and coastal zones, where they feed principally on fish in their large throat pouches,
diving into the water and catching them at/near the water's surface. They can adapt to
varying degrees of water salinity, from freshwater and brackish to—most commonly—
seawater. They are gregarious birds, travelling in flocks, hunting cooperatively, and
breeding colonially. Four white-plumaged species tend to nest on the ground, and four
brown or grey-plumaged species nest mainly in trees. [4] The relationship between
pelicans and people has often been contentious. The birds have been persecuted
because of their perceived competition with commercial and recreational fishing. [5] Their
populations have fallen through habitat destruction, disturbance, and environmental
pollution, and three species are of conservation concern. They also have a long history
of cultural significance in mythology, and in Christian and heraldic iconography.

Taxonomy and systematics

Etymology
The name comes from the Ancient Greek word pelekan (πελεκάν),[6] which is itself
derived from the word pelekys (πέλεκυς) meaning "axe".[7] In classical times, the word
was applied to both the pelican and the woodpecker. [8]
The genus Pelecanus was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark
1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. He described the distinguishing characteristics
as a straight bill hooked at the tip, linear nostrils, a bare face, and fully webbed feet.
This early definition included frigatebirds, cormorants, and sulids, as well as pelicans.[9]
Taxonomy
Main article: Pelecaniformes §  Systematics and evolution

The family Pelecanidae was introduced (as Pelicanea) by the

French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815.[10][11] Pelicans give their name
to the Pelecaniformes, an order which has a varied taxonomic
history. Tropicbirds, darters, cormorants, gannets, boobies, and frigatebirds, all
traditional members of the order, have since been reclassified: tropicbirds into their own
order, Phaethontiformes, and the remainder into the Suliformes. In their place, herons,
ibises, spoonbills, the hamerkop, and the shoebill have now been transferred into the
Pelecaniformes.[12] Molecular evidence suggests that the shoebill and the hamerkop form
a sister group to the pelicans,[13] though some doubt exists as to the exact relationships
among the three lineages.[14]
The oldest known record of Pelicans is a right tibiotarsus very similar to those of modern
species from the Birket Qarun Formation in the Wadi El Hitan in Egypt, dating to the
late Eocene (Priabonian), referred to the genus Eopelecanus.[1]
         
P.  rufescens

P.  philippensis

P.  crispus

P.  conspicillatus

P.  onocrotalus

   
P.  occidentalis

P.  thagus

P.  erythrorhynchos

Evolutionary relationships among the extant

species based on Kennedy et al. (2013).[3]
Closest living relatives
Suliformes

Pelecaniformes
Herons (Ardeidae)

Ibises and spoonbills (Threskiornithidae)

Hamerkop

Hamerkop (Scopus umbretta)

Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex)
Cladogram based on Hackett et al. (2008).[12] Shoebill

Living species
The eight living pelican species were traditionally divided into two groups, one
containing four ground-nesters with mainly white adult plumage
(Australian, Dalmatian, great white, and American white pelicans), and one containing
four grey- or brown-plumaged species which nest preferentially either in trees (pink-
backed, spot-billed and brown pelicans), or on sea rocks (Peruvian pelican). The largely
marine brown and Peruvian pelicans, formerly considered conspecific,[4] are sometimes
separated from the others by placement in the subgenus Leptopelecanus[15] but in fact
species with both sorts of appearance and nesting behavior are found in either.
DNA sequencing of both mitochondrial and nuclear genes yielded quite different
relationships; the three New World pelicans formed one lineage, with the American
white pelican sister to the two brown pelicans, and the five Old World species the other.
The Dalmatian, pink-backed, and spot-billed were all closely related to one another,
while the Australian white pelican was their next-closest relative. The great white
pelican also belonged to this lineage, but was the first to diverge from the common
ancestor of the other four species. This finding suggests that pelicans evolved in the Old
World and spread into the Americas, and that preference for tree- or ground-nesting is
more related to size than genetics.[3]

Living species of Pelecanus

Common and
Image Description Range and
binomial names[16]

Length 1.3–1.8 m (4.3–

5.9 ft), wingspan 2.44–
American white 2.9 m (8.0–9.5 ft), weight
pelican 5–9 kg (10–20 lb).
Monotypic. Breeds in inland Canada and
Pelecanus [17]
 Plumage almost
United States, Mexico and Central Ameri
erythrorhynchos entirely white, except for
Gmelin, 1789 black primary and
secondary remiges only
visible in flight.
 Length up to 1.4 m
(4.6 ft), wingspan 2–
Brown pelican 2.3 m (6.6–7.5 ft), weight
Five subspecies. Coastal distribution rang
Pelecanus 3.6–4.5 kg (7.9–9.9 lb).
Caribbean to northern South America an
occidentalis [20]
 Smallest pelican;
concern.[23]
Linnaeus, 1766 distinguished by brown
plumage; feeds by
plunge-diving.[21]

Length up to 1.52 m
(5.0 ft), wingspan 2.48 m
Peruvian pelican (8.1 ft),[24] average weight
Monotypic. Pacific Coast of South Americ
Pelecanus thagus 7 kg (15 lb).[25] Dark with a
through to southern Chile.[22] Status: near
Molina, 1782 white stripe from the
crown down the sides of
the neck.

Length 1.40–1.75 m (4.6–

5.7 ft), wingspan 2.45–
Great white pelican
2.95 m (8.0–9.7 ft),
Pelecanus Monotypic. Patchy distribution from eas
weight 10–11 kg (22–
onocrotalus and Malay Peninsula, and south to South
24 lb).[27][28] Plumage
Linnaeus, 1758
white, with pink facial
patch and legs.

Length 1.60–1.90 m (5.2–

6.2 ft), wingspan 2.3–
Australian pelican 2.5 m (7.5–8.2 ft), weight
Pelecanus 4–8.2 kg (8.8–18.1 lb). Monotypic. Australia and New Guinea; v
conspicillatus [30]
 Predominantly white Bismarck Archipelago, Fiji and Wallacea.[
Temminck, 1824 with black along
primaries and very large,
pale pink bill.
 Length 1.25–1.32 m (4.1–
4.3 ft), wingspan 2.65–
2.9 m (8.7–9.5 ft),
[32]
 weight 3.9–7 kg (8.6–
Pink-backed pelican
15.4 lb).[33] Grey and Monotypic. Africa, Seychelles and southw
Pelecanus rufescens
white plumage, Madagascar.[34] Status: least concern.[35]
Gmelin, 1789
occasionally pinkish on
the back, with a yellow
upper mandible and grey
pouch.[32]

Length 1.60–1.80 m (5.2–

5.9 ft), wingspan 2.70–
3.20 m (8.9–10.5 ft),
weight 10–12 kg (22–
Dalmatian pelican
26 lb).[27][28] Largest Monotypic. South-eastern Europe to Ind
Pelecanus crispus
pelican; differs from threatened.[36]
Bruch, 1832
great white pelican in
having curly nape
feathers, grey legs and
greyish-white plumage.[32]

Length 1.27–1.52 m (4.2–

5.0 ft), wingspan 2.5 m
(8.2 ft), weight c. 5 kg
Spot-billed pelican
(11 lb).[37] Mainly grey- Monotypic. Southern Asia from southern
Pelecanus
white all over, with a Indonesia;[22] extinct in the Philippines an
philippensis
grey hindneck crest in near threatened.[38]
Gmelin, 1789
breeding season, pinkish
rump and spotted bill
pouch.[37]

Fossil record
The fossil record shows that the pelican lineage has existed for at least 36 million years;
the oldest known pelican fossil was assigned to Eopelecanus aegyptiacus and was
found in late Eocene (middle to late part of the early Priabonian stage/age) deposits of
the Birket Qarun Formation within the Wadi Al-Hitan World Heritage Site in Egypt.[1] A
more complete fossil pelican of early Oligocene age is known from deposits at
the Luberon in southeastern France, and is remarkably similar to modern forms. [39] Its
beak is almost complete and is morphologically identical to that of present-day pelicans,
showing that this advanced feeding apparatus was already in existence at the time.
[39]
 An Early Miocene fossil has been named Miopelecanus gracilis on the basis of certain
features originally considered unique, but later thought to lie within the range of
interspecific variation in Pelecanus.[39] The Late Eocene Protopelicanus may be
a pelecaniform or suliform – or a similar aquatic bird such as a pseudotooth
(Pelagornithidae), but is not generally considered a pelecanid.[40][1] The
supposed Miocene pelican Liptornis from Patagonia is a nomen dubium (of doubtful
validity), being based on fragments providing insufficient evidence to support a valid
description.[41]
Fossil finds from North America have been meagre compared with Europe, which has a
richer fossil record.[42] Several Pelecanus species have been described from fossil
material, including:[43]

 Pelecanus cadimurka, Rich & van Tets, 1981 (Late Pliocene, South Australia)[44]
 Pelecanus cautleyi, Davies, 1880 (Early Pliocene, Siwalik Hills, India)[43]
 Pelecanus fraasi, Lydekker, 1891 (Middle Miocene, Bavaria, Germany)[43]
 Pelecanus gracilis, Milne-Edwards, 1863 (Early Miocene, France) (see: Miopelecanus)[43]
 Pelecanus halieus, Wetmore, 1933 (Late Pliocene, Idaho, US)[45]
 Pelecanus intermedius, Fraas, 1870 (Middle Miocene, Bavaria, Germany)[43] (transferred
to Miopelecanus by Cheneval in 1984)
 Pelecanus odessanus, Widhalm, 1886 (Late Miocene, near Odesa, Ukraine)[46]
 Pelecanus paranensis, Noriega et. al., 2023 (Late Miocene, Entre Ríos Province, Argentina)
[47]

 Pelecanus schreiberi, Olson, 1999 (Early Pliocene, North Carolina, US)[42]

 Pelecanus sivalensis, Davies, 1880 (Early Pliocene, Siwalik Hills, India)[43]
 Pelecanus tirarensis, Miller, 1966 (Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene, South Australia)[48]

Description
 A brown pelican opening mouth and inflating air sac to display

tongue and some inner bill anatomy American white pelican with knob

which develops on bill before the breeding season An

adult brown pelican with a chick in a nest in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, US: This species will

nest on the ground when no suitable trees are available. [49]

Australian pelican displaying the extent of its throat pouch (Lakes Entrance, Victoria).

Pelicans are very large birds with very long bills characterised by a downcurved hook at
the end of the upper mandible, and the attachment of a huge gular pouch to the lower.
The slender rami of the lower bill and the flexible tongue muscles form the pouch into a
basket for catching fish, and sometimes rainwater, [15] though to not hinder the swallowing
of large fish, the tongue itself is tiny.[50] They have a long neck and short stout legs with
large, fully webbed feet. Although they are among the heaviest of flying birds, [51] they are
relatively light for their apparent bulk because of air pockets in the skeleton and beneath
the skin, enabling them to float high in the water. [15] The tail is short and square. The
wings are long and broad, suitably shaped for soaring and gliding flight, and have the
unusually large number of 30 to 35 secondary flight feathers.[52]
Males are generally larger than females and have longer bills. [15] The smallest species is
the brown pelican, small individuals of which can be no more than 2.75 kg (6.1 lb) and
1.06 m (3.5 ft) long, with a wingspan of as little as 1.83 m (6.0 ft). The largest is believed
to be the Dalmatian, at up to 15 kg (33 lb) and 1.83 m (6.0 ft) in length, with a maximum
wingspan of 3 m (9.8 ft). The Australian pelican's bill may grow up to 0.5 m (1.6 ft) long
in large males,[53] the longest of any bird.[4]
Pelicans have mainly light-coloured plumage, the exceptions being the brown and
Peruvian pelicans.[54] The bills, pouches, and bare facial skin of all species become
brighter before breeding season commences.[55] The throat pouch of the Californian
subspecies of the brown pelican turns bright red, and fades to yellow after the eggs are
laid, while the throat pouch of the Peruvian pelican turns blue. The American white
pelican grows a prominent knob on its bill that is shed once females have laid eggs.
[5]
 The plumage of immature pelicans is darker than that of adults. [54] Newly hatched
chicks are naked and pink, darkening to grey or black after 4 to 14 days, then
developing a covering of white or grey down.[56]
Air sacs
Anatomical dissections of two brown pelicans in 1939 showed that pelicans have a
network of air sacs under their skin situated across the ventral surface including the
throat, breast, and undersides of the wings, as well as having air sacs in their bones.
[57]
 The air sacs are connected to the airways of the respiratory system, and the pelican
can keep its air sacs inflated by closing its glottis, but how air sacs are inflated is not
clear.[57] The air sacs serve to keep the pelican remarkably buoyant in the water [58] and
may also cushion the impact of the pelican's body on the water surface when they dive
from flight into water to catch fish.[57] Superficial air sacs may also help to round body
contours (especially over the abdomen, where surface protuberances may be caused
by viscera changing size and position) to enable the overlying feathers to form more
effective heat insulation and also to enable feathers to be held in position for good
aerodynamics.[57]

Distribution and habitat

Modern pelicans are found on all continents except Antarctica. They primarily inhabit
warm regions, although breeding ranges extend to latitudes of 45° South (Australian
pelicans in Tasmania) and 60° North (American white pelicans in western Canada).
[4]
 Birds of inland and coastal waters, they are absent from polar regions, the deep
ocean, oceanic islands (except the Galapagos), and inland South America, as well as
from the eastern coast of South America from the mouth of the Amazon
River southwards.[15] Subfossil bones have been recovered from as far south as New
Zealand's South Island,[59] although their scarcity and isolated occurrence suggests that
these remains may have merely been vagrants from Australia (much as is the case
today).[60]

Behaviour and ecology

An Australian pelican gliding with its large wings extended

Pelicans swim well with their strong legs and their webbed feet. They rub the backs of
their heads on their preen glands to pick up an oily secretion, which they transfer to
their plumage to waterproof it.[4] Holding their wings only loosely against their bodies,
pelicans float with relatively little of their bodies below the water surface. [32] They
dissipate excess heat by gular flutter – rippling the skin of the throat and pouch with the
bill open to promote evaporative cooling.[15] They roost and loaf communally on beaches,
sandbanks, and in shallow water.[15]
A fibrous layer deep in the breast muscles can hold the wings rigidly horizontal for
gliding and soaring. Thus, they use thermals for soaring to heights of 3000 m (10,000 ft)
or more,[61] combined both with gliding and with flapping flight in V formation, to commute
distances up to 150 km (93 mi) to feeding areas.[4] Pelicans also fly low (or "skim") over
stretches of water, using a phenomenon known as ground effect to reduce drag and
increase lift. As the air flows between the wings and the water surface, it is compressed
to a higher density and exerts a stronger upward force against the bird above. [62] Hence,
substantial energy is saved while flying. [63]
Adult pelicans rely on visual displays and behaviour to communicate, [64] particularly using
their wings and bills. Agonistic behaviour consists of thrusting and snapping at
opponents with their bills, or lifting and waving their wings in a threatening manner.
[65]
 Adult pelicans grunt when at the colony, but are generally silent elsewhere or outside
breeding season.[32][66][67][68] Conversely, colonies are noisy, as chicks vocalise extensively. [64]
Breeding and lifespan
A spot-billed pelican nesting colony at Uppalapadu, India: This species builds nests in trees.

A spot-billed pelican feeding a juvenile in a nest in a tree at Garapadu, India

A nesting colony of Australian pelicans on the coast of New South Wales, Australia: This species nests on the
ground.

Pelicans at Dauphin Island, Alabama, United States

Pelicans are gregarious and nest colonially. Pairs are monogamous for a single season,
but the pair bond extends only to the nesting area; mates are independent away from
the nest. The ground-nesting (white) species have a complex communal courtship
involving a group of males chasing a single female in the air, on land, or in the water
while pointing, gaping, and thrusting their bills at each other. They can finish the
process in a day. The tree-nesting species have a simpler process in which perched
males advertise for females.[4] The location of the breeding colony is constrained by the
availability of an ample supply of fish to eat, although pelicans can use thermals to soar
and commute for hundreds of kilometres daily to fetch food. [55]
The Australian pelican has two reproductive strategies depending on the local degree of
environmental predictability. Colonies of tens or hundreds, rarely thousands, of birds
breed regularly on small coastal and subcoastal islands where food is seasonally or
permanently available. In arid inland Australia, especially in the endorheic Lake Eyre
basin, pelicans breed opportunistically in very large numbers of up to 50,000 pairs,
when irregular major floods, which may be many years apart, fill ephemeral salt
lakes and provide large amounts of food for several months before drying out again. [61]
In all species, copulation takes place at the nest site; it begins shortly after pairing and
continues for 3–10 days before egg-laying. The male brings the nesting material, in
ground-nesting species (which may not build a nest) sometimes in the pouch, and in
tree-nesting species crosswise in the bill. The female then heaps the material up to form
a simple structure.[4]
The eggs are oval, white, and coarsely textured. [15] All species normally lay at least two
eggs; the usual clutch size is one to three, rarely up to six. [15] Both sexes incubate with
the eggs on top of or below the feet; they may display when changing shifts. Incubation
takes 30–36 days;[15] hatching success for undisturbed pairs can be as high as 95%, but
because of sibling competition or siblicide, in the wild, usually all but one nestling dies
within the first few weeks (later in the pink-backed and spot-billed species). Both
parents feed their young. Small chicks are fed by regurgitation; after about a week, they
are able to put their heads into their parents' pouches and feed themselves.
[56]
 Sometimes before, but especially after being fed the pelican chick may seem to
"throw a tantrum" by loudly vocalizing and dragging itself around in a circle by one wing
and leg, striking its head on the ground or anything nearby and the tantrums sometimes
end in what looks like a seizure that results in the chick falling briefly unconscious; the
reason is not clearly known, but a common belief is that it is to draw attention to itself
and away from any siblings who are waiting to be fed. [4]
Parents of ground-nesting species sometimes drag older young around roughly by the
head before feeding them. From about 25 days old, [15] the young of these species gather
in "pods" or "crèches" of up to 100 birds in which parents recognise and feed only their
own offspring. By 6–8 weeks they wander around, occasionally swimming, and may
practise communal feeding.[4] Young of all species fledge 10–12 weeks after hatching.
They may remain with their parents afterwards, but are now seldom or never fed. They
are mature at three or four years old.[15] Overall breeding success is highly variable.
[4]
 Pelicans live for 15 to 25 years in the wild, although one reached an age of 54 years in
captivity.[55]
Feeding
The diet of pelicans usually consists of fish, [55] but occasionally amphibians,
turtles, crustaceans, insects, birds, and mammals are also eaten.[69][70][71] The size of the
preferred prey fish varies depending on pelican species and location. For example, in
Africa, the pink-backed pelican generally takes fish ranging in size from fry up to 400 g
(0.9 lb) and the great white pelican prefers somewhat larger fish, up to 600 g (1.3 lb),
but in Europe, the latter species has been recorded taking fish up to 1,850 g (4.1 lb).
[71]
 In deep water, white pelicans often fish alone. Nearer the shore, several encircle
schools of small fish or form a line to drive them into the shallows, beating their wings
on the water surface and then scooping up the prey. [72] Although all pelican species may
feed in groups or alone, the Dalmatian, pink-backed, and spot-billed pelicans are the
only ones to prefer solitary feeding. When fishing in groups, all pelican species have
been known to work together to catch their prey, and Dalmatian pelicans may even
cooperate with great cormorants.[71]
0:31Brown pelicans diving into the sea to catch fish in Jamaica

Large fish are caught with the bill-tip, then tossed up in the air to be caught and slid into
the gullet head-first. A gull will sometimes stand on the pelican's head, peck it to
distraction, and grab a fish from the open bill.[73] Pelicans in their turn sometimes snatch
prey from other waterbirds.[4]
The brown pelican usually plunge-dives head-first for its prey, from a height as great as
10–20 m (33–66 ft), especially for anchovies and menhaden.[74][72][71] The only other
pelican to feed using a similar technique is the Peruvian pelican, but its dives are
typically from a lower height than the brown pelican. [75] The Australian and American
white pelicans may feed by low plunge-dives landing feet-first and then scooping up the
prey with the beak, but they—as well as the remaining pelican species—primarily feed
while swimming on the water.[71] Aquatic prey is most commonly taken at or near the
water surface.[54] Although principally a fish eater, the Australian pelican is also an
eclectic and opportunistic scavenger and carnivore that forages in landfill sites, as well
as taking carrion[76] and "anything from insects and small crustaceans to ducks and small
dogs".[76] Food is not stored in a pelican's throat pouch, contrary to popular folklore. [55]
Pelicans may also eat birds. In southern Africa, eggs and chicks of the Cape
cormorant are an important food source for great white pelicans. [71] Several other bird
species have been recorded in the diet of this pelican in South Africa, including Cape
gannet chicks on Malgas Island[77] as well as crowned cormorants, kelp gulls, greater
crested terns, and African penguins on Dassen Island and elsewhere.[78] The Australian
pelican, which is particularly willing to take a wide range of prey items, has been
recorded feeding on young Australian white ibis, and young and adult grey
teals and silver gulls.[71][79] Brown pelicans have been reported preying on young common
murres in California and the eggs and nestlings of cattle egrets and nestling great
egrets in Baja California, Mexico.[80] Peruvian pelicans in Chile have been recorded
feeding on nestlings of imperial shags, juvenile Peruvian diving petrels, and grey gulls.[81]
[82]
 Cannibalism of chicks of their own species is known from the Australian, brown, and
Peruvian pelicans.[79][80][82] Non-native great white pelicans have been observed
swallowing city pigeons in St. James's Park in London, England.[70]

Status and conservation

Populations
Globally, pelican populations are adversely affected by these main factors: declining
supplies of fish through overfishing or water pollution, destruction of habitat, direct
effects of human activity such as disturbance at nesting colonies, hunting and culling,
entanglement in fishing lines and hooks, and the presence of pollutants such
as DDT and endrin. Most species' populations are more or less stable, although three
are classified by the IUCN as being at risk. All species breed readily in zoos, which is
potentially useful for conservation management. [83]

Pelecanus occidentalis, Tortuga Bay, Island of Santa Cruz,

Galápagos

The combined population of brown and Peruvian pelicans is estimated at 650,000 birds,
with around 250,000 in the United States and Caribbean, and 400,000 in Peru.
[a]
 The National Audubon Society estimates the global population of the brown pelican at
300,000.[85] Numbers of brown pelican plummeted in the 1950s and 1960s, largely as a
consequence of environmental DDT pollution, and the species was listed as
endangered in the US in 1970. With restrictions on DDT use in the US from 1972, its
population has recovered, and it was delisted in 2009. [84][86]
The Peruvian pelican is listed as near threatened because, although the population is
estimated by BirdLife International to exceed 500,000 mature individuals, and is
possibly increasing, it has been much higher in the past. It declined dramatically during
the 1998 El Niño event and could experience similar declines in the future.
Conservation needs include regular monitoring throughout the range to determine
population trends, particularly after El Niño years, restricting human access to important
breeding colonies, and assessing interactions with fisheries. [87]
The spot-billed pelican has an estimated population between 13,000 and 18,000 and is
considered to be near threatened in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Numbers declined substantially during the 20th century, one crucial factor being the
eradication of the important Sittaung valley breeding colony in Burma through
deforestation and the loss of feeding sites. [88] The chief threats it faces are from habitat
loss and human disturbance, but populations have mostly stabilised following increased
protection in India and Cambodia.[38]
The pink-backed pelican has a large population ranging over much of sub-Saharan
Africa. In the absence of substantial threats or evidence of declines across its range, its
conservation status is assessed as being of least concern. Regional threats include the
drainage of wetlands and increasing disturbance in southern Africa. The species is
susceptible to bioaccumulation of toxins and the destruction of nesting trees by logging.
[89]

The American white pelican has increased in numbers, [5] with its population estimated at
over 157,000 birds in 2005, becoming more numerous east of the continental divide,
while declining in the west.[90] However, whether its numbers have been affected by
exposure to pesticides is unclear, as it has also lost habitat through wetland drainage
and competition with recreational use of lakes and rivers. [5]

Great white pelicans loafing in Kenya

Great white pelicans range over a large area of Africa and southern Asia. The overall
trend in numbers is uncertain, with a mix of regional populations that are increasing,
declining, stable, or unknown, but no evidence has been found of rapid overall decline,
and the status of the species is assessed as being of least concern. Threats include the
drainage of wetlands, persecution and sport hunting, disturbance at the breeding
colonies, and contamination by pesticides and heavy metals. [91]
The Dalmatian pelican has a population estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000
following massive declines in the 19th and 20th centuries. The main ongoing threats
include hunting, especially in eastern Asia, disturbance, coastal development, collision
with overhead power lines, and the over-exploitation of fish stocks. [92] It is listed as near
threatened by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as the population trend is
downwards, especially in Mongolia, where it is nearly extinct. However, several
European colonies are increasing in size and the largest colony for the species, at
the Small Prespa Lake in Greece, has reached about 1,400 breeding pairs following
conservation measures.[36]
Widespread across Australia,[5] the Australian pelican has a population generally
estimated at between 300,000 and 500,000 individuals. [93] Overall population numbers
fluctuate widely and erratically depending on wetland conditions and breeding success
across the continent. The species is assessed as being of least concern. [94]
Culling and disturbance
Pelicans have been persecuted by humans for their perceived competition for fish,
despite the fact that their diet overlaps little with fish caught by people. [5] Starting in the
1880s, American white pelicans were clubbed and shot, their eggs and young were
deliberately destroyed, and their feeding and nesting sites were degraded by water
management schemes and wetland drainage.[5] Even in the 21st century, an increase in
the population of American white pelicans in southeastern Idaho in the US was seen to
threaten the recreational cutthroat trout fishery there, leading to official attempts to
reduce pelican numbers through systematic harassment and culling.[95]
Great white pelicans on Dyer Island, in the Western Cape region of South Africa, were
culled during the 19th century because their predation of the eggs and chicks of guano-
producing seabirds was seen to threaten the livelihood of the guano collectors. [78] More
recently, such predation at South African seabird colonies has impacted on the
conservation of threatened seabird populations, especially crowned cormorants, Cape
cormorants, and bank cormorants. This has led to suggestions that pelican numbers
should be controlled at vulnerable colonies.[78]
Apart from habitat destruction and deliberate, targeted persecution, pelicans are
vulnerable to disturbance at their breeding colonies by birdwatchers, photographers,
and other curious visitors. Human presence alone can cause the birds to accidentally
displace or destroy their eggs, leave hatchlings exposed to predators and adverse
weather, or even abandon their colonies completely. [96][97][98]
Poisoning and pollution

Brown pelicans, covered with oil, after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010
Oiled brown pelican being washed at a rescue center in Fort Jackson, 2010

DDT pollution in the environment was a major cause of decline of brown pelican
populations in North America in the 1950s and 1960s. It entered the oceanic food web,
contaminating and accumulating in several species, including one of the pelican's
primary food fish – the northern anchovy. Its metabolite DDE is a
reproductive toxicant in pelicans and many other birds, causing eggshell thinning and
weakening, and consequent breeding failure through the eggs being accidentally
crushed by brooding birds. Since an effective ban on the use of DDT was implemented
in the US in 1972, the eggshells of breeding brown pelicans there have thickened and
their populations have largely recovered.[74][99]
In the late 1960s, following the major decline in brown pelican numbers in Louisiana
from DDT poisoning, 500 pelicans were imported from Florida to augment and re-
establish the population; over 300 subsequently died in April and May 1975 from
poisoning by the pesticide endrin.[100] About 14,000 pelicans, including 7500 American
white pelicans, perished from botulism after eating fish from the Salton Sea in 1990.[5] In
1991, abnormal numbers of brown pelicans and Brandt's cormorants died at Santa
Cruz, California, when their food fish (anchovies) were contaminated
with neurotoxic domoic acid, produced by the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia.[101]
As waterbirds that feed on fish, pelicans are highly susceptible to oil spills, both directly
by being oiled and by the impact on their food resources. A 2007 report to the California
Fish and Game Commission estimated that during the previous 20 years, some 500–
1000 brown pelicans had been affected by oil spills in California. [98] A 2011 report by
the Center for Biological Diversity, a year after the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil
spill, said that 932 brown pelicans had been collected after being affected by oiling and
estimated that 10 times that number had been harmed as a result of the spill. [102]
Where pelicans interact with fishers, through either sharing the same waters or
scavenging for fishing refuse, they are especially vulnerable to being hooked and
entangled in both active and discarded fishing lines. Fish hooks are swallowed or catch
in the skin of the pouch or webbed feet, and strong monofilament fishing line can
become wound around bill, wings, or legs, resulting in crippling, starvation, and often
death. Local rescue organisations have been established in North America and
Australia by volunteers to treat and rehabilitate injured pelicans and other wildlife. [103][104][105]
Parasites and disease
As with other bird families, pelicans are susceptible to a variety of parasites. Avian
malaria is carried by the mosquito Culex pipens, and high densities of these biting
insects may force pelican colonies to be abandoned. Leeches may attach to the vent or
sometimes the inside of the pouch.[106] A study of the parasites of the American white
pelican found 75 different species, including tapeworms, flukes, flies, fleas, ticks,
and nematodes.
The brown pelican has a similarly extensive range of parasites. The
nematodes Contracaecum multipapillatum and C. mexicanum and
the trematode Ribeiroia ondatrae have caused illness and mortality in the Puerto
Rican population, possibly endangering the pelican on this island. [107]
Many pelican parasites are found in other bird groups, but several lice are very host-
specific.[108] Healthy pelicans can usually cope with their lice, but sick birds may carry
hundreds of individuals, which hastens a sick bird's demise. The pouch
louse Piagetiella peralis occurs in the pouch and so it cannot be removed by preening.
While this is usually not a serious problem even when present in such numbers that it
covers the whole interior of the pouch, sometimes inflammation and bleeding may occur
from it and harm the host.[108]
In May 2012, hundreds of Peruvian pelicans were reported to have perished
in Peru from a combination of starvation and roundworm infestation.[109]

Religion, mythology, and popular culture

Breeding pelicans. Wall fragment from the Sun Temple of Nyuserre Ini at Abu Gurob, Egypt. c.
2430 BCE. Neues Museum, Berlin

The pelican (henet in Egyptian) was associated in Ancient Egypt with death and

the afterlife. It was depicted in art on the walls of tombs, and figured in funerary texts, as
a protective symbol against snakes. Henet was also referred to in the Pyramid Texts as
the "mother of the king" and thus seen as a goddess. References in nonroyal
funerary papyri show that the pelican was believed to possess the ability to prophesy
safe passage in the underworld for someone who had died.[110]
Consumption of pelican, as with other seabirds, is considered not kosher as an unclean
animal, and thus forbidden in Jewish dietary law.[111][112]
An origin myth from the Murri people of Queensland, cited by Andrew Lang, describes
how the Australian pelican acquired its black and white plumage. The pelican, formerly
a black bird, made a canoe during a flood to save drowning people. He fell in love with a
woman he thus saved, but her friends and she tricked him and escaped. The pelican
consequently prepared to go to war against them by daubing himself with white clay as
war paint. However, before he had finished, another pelican, on seeing such a strange
piebald creature, killed him with its beak, and all such pelicans have been black and
white ever since.[113]
The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature.[114] They placed emphasis on
animals and often depicted pelicans in their art. [115]
Alcatraz Island was given its name by the Spanish because of the large numbers of
brown pelicans nesting present. The word alcatraz is itself derived from the Arabic al-
caduos, a term used for a water-carrying vessel and likened to the pouch of the pelican.
The English name albatross is also derived by corruption of the Spanish word. [116][117]
Christianity

Statue of pelican wounding its breast to feed its chicks

WWII 1944 Scottish blood transfusion poster

The Physiologus, a didactic Christian text from the 3rd or 4th century, claims that
pelicans kill their young when they grow and strike their parents in the face, but then the
mother laments them for three days, after which she strikes her side and brings them
back to life with her blood.[118] This the Physiologus explains as mirroring the pain inflicted
on God by people's idolatry, and the self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross redeeming the
sinful (see the blood and water gushing from the wound in his side).[118] This text was
widely copied, translated, and sometimes closely paraphrased during the Middle Ages,
for instance by 13th-century authors Guillaume le Clerc and Bartholomaeus Anglicus.
[118]
 Likewise, a folktale from India says that a pelican killed her young by rough
treatment, but was then so contrite that she resurrected them with her own blood. [4] In a
newer, also medieval version of the European myth, [4] the pelican was thought to be
particularly attentive to her young, to the point of providing them with blood by wounding
her own breast when no other food was available. As a result, the pelican came to
symbolise the Passion of Jesus and the Eucharist,[119][120] supplementing the image of
the lamb and the flag.[121] A reference to this mythical characteristic is contained for
example in the hymn by Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Adoro te devote" or "Humbly We
Adore Thee", where in the penultimate verse, he describes Christ as the loving divine
pelican, one drop of whose blood can save the world. [122]
Elizabeth I of England adopted the symbol, portraying herself as the "mother of the
Church of England". The Pelican Portrait of her was painted around 1573, probably
by Nicholas Hilliard.[123] A pelican feeding her young is depicted in an oval panel at the
bottom of the title page of the first (1611) edition of the King James Bible.[121] Such "a
pelican in her piety" appears in the 1686 reredos by Grinling Gibbons in the church of St
Mary Abchurch in the City of London. Earlier medieval examples of the motif appear in
painted murals, for example that of circa 1350 in the parish church of Belchamp Walter,
Essex.[124]

Queen Elizabeth I: the Pelican Portrait, by Nicholas

Hilliard (circa 1573), in which Elizabeth I wears the medieval symbol of the pelican on her chest

The self-sacrificial aspect of the pelican was reinforced by the widely read
medieval bestiaries. The device of "a pelican in her piety" or "a pelican vulning
(from Latin vulnerō, "I wound, I injure, I hurt") herself" was used in religious iconography
and heraldry.[4]
Origin in nature
The legends of self-wounding and the provision of blood may have arisen because of
the impression a pelican sometimes gives that it is stabbing itself with its bill. In reality, it
often presses this onto its chest to fully empty the pouch. Another possible derivation is
the tendency of the bird to rest with its bill on its breast; the Dalmatian pelican has a
blood-red pouch in the early breeding season and this may have contributed to the
myth.[4]
Heraldry
 The arms of the Kiszely family of Benedekfalva depict a
"pelican in her piety" both in the crest and shield.

Pelicans have featured extensively in heraldry, generally using the Christian symbolism
of the pelican as a caring and self-sacrificing parent. [125] Heraldic images featuring a
"pelican vulning" refers to a pelican injuring herself, while a "pelican in her piety" refers
to a female pelican feeding her young with her own blood. [126] The King of Portugal John
II adopted the pelican as is own personal sygil while he was Infante, evoking the
christian symbology to equate the sacrifice of his blood to feed the nation. The pelican
as a symbol also became synonymous with the increasing charity efforts of the Santas
Casas da Misericórdia during his reign and the reconstruction of the Hospital das
Caldas da Rainha and the Hospital Real de Todos-os-Santos, which were mainly
patronaged by his wife D. Leonor.[127]
The image became linked to the medieval religious feast of Corpus Christi. The
universities of Oxford and Cambridge each have colleges named for the religious
festival nearest the dates of their establishment, [121] and both Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge,[128] and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, feature pelicans on their coats of
arms.[129]
The medical faculties of Charles University in Prague also have a pelican as their
emblem.[130] The symbol of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service is a pelican, and for most
of its existence the headquarters of the service was located at Pelican House in Dublin,
Ireland.[131] The heraldic pelican also ended up as a pub name and image, though
sometimes with the image of the ship Golden Hind.[132] Sir Francis Drake's famous ship
was initially called Pelican, and adorned the British halfpenny coin.[133]
Modern usage

Pelican on the Albanian 1 lek coin.

The great white pelican is the national bird of Romania.[134] The brown pelican is the
national bird of three Caribbean countries—Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, and Sint
Maarten—and features on their coats of arms.[135][136][137] It is also the state bird of the US
state of Louisiana, which is known colloquially as the Pelican State; the bird appears on
the state flag and state seal.[8] It adorns the seals of Louisiana State University, Tulane
University, Louisiana Tech University, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Loyola
University New Orleans, Southeastern Louisiana University, and Southern University,
and is the mascot of the New Orleans Pelicans NBA team, the Lahti Pelicans ice
hockey team, Tulane University, and the University of the West Indies. A white pelican
logo is used by the Portuguese bank Montepio Geral,[138] and a pelican is depicted on
the reverse of the Albanian 1 lek coin, issued in 1996.[139] The name and image were
used for Pelican Books, an imprint of nonfiction books published by Penguin Books.
[8]
 The seal of the Packer Collegiate Institute, a pelican feeding her young, has been in
use since 1885.[140]
The pelican is the subject of a popular limerick originally composed by Dixon Lanier
Merritt in 1910 with several variations by other authors. [141] The original version ran:[142]
A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican,
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.

Notes
1. ^ The US government has not accepted the elevation of the two taxa into separate species. [84]

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Cited texts
 Elliott, Andrew (1992). "Family Pelecanidae (Pelicans)". In del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew;
Sargatal, Jordi (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks.
Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. pp. 290–311. ISBN 978-84-87334-10-8.

External links
 Wikiquote has quotations related to Pelicans.

 Birds portal

 Animals portal

  The dictionary definition of pelican at Wiktionary

  Media related to Pelecanus at Wikimedia Commons
 Newton, Alfred (1885). "Pelican"  . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. XVIII (9th ed.). pp. 474–
475.
 Pelican videos on the Internet Bird Collection

hide

Order: Pelecaniformes

show

Pelicans (family: Pelecanidae · genus: Pelecanus)

show

Shoebill (family: Balaenicipitidae · genus: Balaeniceps)

show

Hamerkop (family: Scopidae · genus: Scopus)

Wikidata: Q19413

Wikispecies: Pelecanus

ADW: Pelecanus

AFD: Pelecanus

BOLD: 4573

CoL: 6K7T

EoL: 45509058

EPPO: 1PELKG

Euring: 919

Fauna Europaea: 96611
 Fauna Europaea (new): 5af7b9f2-626e-4242-898c-7442107c5494

Fossilworks: 39673

GBIF: 10650925

iNaturalist: 4324

ITIS: 174683

NBN: NHMSYS0000533599

NCBI: 33617

NZOR: 2b14bd97-9620-464e-9e36-719fa674bcee

Plazi: 136BC376-04E4-C3F1-3E17-E041864C50EC

WoRMS: 137052

ZooBank: 965B1A2D-F1C1-4D10-A340-08DAEE5E59AC

France

BnF data
Authority control: Germany
National  Israel

United States

Czech Republic
Categories: 

 Extant Chattian first appearances

 National symbols of Barbados
 Pelicans
 Pelecanus
 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
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