Lucky Pelican!
Posted by Kate (Wildlife Rescue)
It’s school holiday time again – and for us that means lots of extra people enjoying our waterways. Sadly along with this comes the impact on our Marine animals. During School holidays, we make an extra effort to patrol our river systems to keep an eye on any emerging Wildlife Issues. The crew were called out to Picnic Point, on the Maroochy River recently for a pelican that had swallowed a fishing hook and line. Andy used the Net Gun to successfully capture the Pelican mid water, and the team swam in and brought him to shore.
On closer inspection, we found that the hook was too far down into the Pelicans mouth for us to reach, so we decided to take him back to the AWH for emergency surgery. As we were unpacking our specially designed ‘Pelican Pet-Pack’, he regurgitated the fish that we had been feeding him, and along with that, the Hook and all the line! It was a brilliant result, as we were able to release him immediately on the river bank!
If you have a wildlife emergency please call the Australia Zoo Rescue Unit on 5436 2000
Tags: Australia Zoo, Entanglement, Fishing Line, pelican, rescue
