Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Florin
Speaker 1: vogel bomb here. The pelican is the squat peculiar looking
Speaker 1: bird you might see sitting on a dock or on
Speaker 1: the beach among the sandpipers and seagulls, the one with
Speaker 1: the incredibly long bill and huge wingspan. But the most
Speaker 1: distinctive feature of this shore bird is what's called its
Speaker 1: gooler pouch, which is the loose bag of skin that
Speaker 1: descends off the lower side of its bill, and when
Speaker 1: the pouch is full, can stretch all the way down
Speaker 1: to the bottom of its long neck. This pouch allows
Speaker 1: the pelican to engage in a strange form of filter feeding.
Speaker 1: The bird can fly low over the water, open and
Speaker 1: speak wide, and dip down to scoop up a fish
Speaker 1: the way you might catch a guppy in a cup
Speaker 1: with a lot of water along with it. A while
Speaker 1: making a landing. The googler pouch then lets the water
Speaker 1: drain out. The pelican can tip back its head and
Speaker 1: swallow just the fish. There are either seven or eight
Speaker 1: species of pelican, depending on which researchers you ask. There's
Speaker 1: some argument about subspecies, but all pelicans have a similar
Speaker 1: awkward appearance. No shade intended. That's a science fact, though
Speaker 1: They do vary in their size, color, territory, and behavior.
Speaker 1: Some species nest in trees, while others build homes for
Speaker 1: themselves on the ground or in rocks. Pelicans can weighs
Speaker 1: little as six pounds a bit less than three kilos,
Speaker 1: and as much as thirty pounds about thirteen and a
Speaker 1: half kilos, and they live on every continent except Antarctica.
Speaker 1: Among the pelicans, the winner for sheer bill size is
Speaker 1: the Australian pelican. Its bill can be up to a
Speaker 1: foot and a half long that's about half a meter.
Speaker 1: Pelicans are very social animals, building their nests in colonies.
Speaker 1: The brown pelt is unusual because it's the only species
Speaker 1: to feed by diving headfirst into the water, which is
Speaker 1: called plunge diving. Most other pelicans work together to herd
Speaker 1: schools of fish into shallow water. They then dive in
Speaker 1: and scoop up the fish, often all together as a group.
Speaker 1: Sometimes pelicans will even tag along with other types of birds,
Speaker 1: tracking their prey in the water, and then steal the
Speaker 1: fish right out from under them. But it's all fair
Speaker 1: in fishery. Pelicans themselves are victims of piracy. On occasion,
Speaker 1: it can take a few seconds for a pelican to
Speaker 1: drain all that water out of its pouch, during which
Speaker 1: time a seagull, often standing on the pelican's head and
Speaker 1: pecking at it as a distraction, will dart into its
Speaker 1: open bill and steal the fish. Pelicans are part of
Speaker 1: the order Pelicanniforms, which includes around fifty species of water birds.
Speaker 1: These birds are distinguished from other orders by their forewhebbed toes,
Speaker 1: the fact that they breathe through their mouths instead of
Speaker 1: nail or nostrils, and their tendency to feed on marine animals.
Speaker 1: And then, of course there's that gooler skin. Though pelicans
Speaker 1: are the only birds with such a huge pouch that
Speaker 1: it can use it to catch meals, other members of
Speaker 1: the order, like the great frigate bird, can puff their
Speaker 1: gooler skin up with air during courtship displays. Pelican's lower mandible,
Speaker 1: that is the bottom half of its bill, is basically
Speaker 1: just a frame around that pouch. By bending its neck,
Speaker 1: it can even turn its pouch inside out. Another unique
Speaker 1: feature is the hook at the tip of the pelican's
Speaker 1: upper mandible. The top half of its bill, which helps
Speaker 1: grab onto particularly slippery or wiggly fish. Here's how it works.
Speaker 1: After locating and scooping up its prey, the pelican opens
Speaker 1: its bill and slowly contracts its pouch to empty out
Speaker 1: the water while keeping the fish inside. Then, with a
Speaker 1: jerk of the bird's head, the fish slides down the hat.
Speaker 1: If a fish is particularly large, the pelican might manipulate
Speaker 1: it so the fish goes down head first, which helps
Speaker 1: prevent it from getting stuck. A pelican can't eat or
Speaker 1: fly away if its pouch is still full of water,
Speaker 1: so that draining process is very important. Okay, can that
Speaker 1: beak and its pouch really hold more than a pelican's stomach?
Speaker 1: There's a reason we ask this question. There was a
Speaker 1: limerick written by humorist Dixon linear Merit in nineteen ten
Speaker 1: that goes, oh, a wondrous bird is the pelican. His
Speaker 1: bill holds more than his pelican. He can take in
Speaker 1: his beak enough food for a week. But I'm darned
Speaker 1: if I know how the helican and the limerick is
Speaker 1: partially accurate. A pelican's bill does have a larger capacity
Speaker 1: than its stomach. Its stomach can hold up to about
Speaker 1: a gallon just under four liters, while its pouch can
Speaker 1: hold up to about three gallons or elevenish leaders. But
Speaker 1: wh well a pelican might technically be able to take
Speaker 1: enough food in its bill for a week, it doesn't
Speaker 1: store food there, so what is on the menu. While
Speaker 1: most pelicans eat fish exclusively, they can be opportunistic eaters
Speaker 1: of lizards, frogs, crabs, and lobsters. Pelicans have even been
Speaker 1: observed eating smaller birds, sometimes scooping up water in order
Speaker 1: to drown them before swallowing back. In two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: a photographer in London's Saint James Park recorded an extraordinary site.
Speaker 1: Of the five pelicans living in the park were fed
Speaker 1: a diet of fish, but apparently that wasn't enough for
Speaker 1: one of them. A pelican picked up a pigeon from
Speaker 1: the sidewalk and swallowed it, to the shock and amazement
Speaker 1: of park visitors. Since the incident, other people have claimed
Speaker 1: to see the Saint James Park pelicans eating pigeons. A
Speaker 1: representative for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Speaker 1: so that this behavior was highly unusual and likely attributed
Speaker 1: to the bird's contact with people and its more urban environment.
Speaker 1: There is, however, other photographic evidence of pelicans trying any
Speaker 1: number of unusual meals out for size, attempting to stretch
Speaker 1: their beaks around everything from cats and dogs to cows
Speaker 1: and capaberas to bear cubs and giraffes, though the pelican's
Speaker 1: photographed seem to have succeeded only in mildly annoying the
Speaker 1: potential meals in question. Aside from catching or annoying their
Speaker 1: potential prey, pelicans use their bill for other things. During courtship,
Speaker 1: male pelicans often stretch out and flap their pouches and
Speaker 1: clap their bills. They may also lash out at rivals
Speaker 1: and other threatening animals with that sharp hook at the
Speaker 1: end of the bill. Baby chicks are fed by both parents,
Speaker 1: who regurgitate partially digested fish for them to eat. Chicks
Speaker 1: that are old enough to eat whole fish but not
Speaker 1: yet ready to hunt may be seen fishing for dinner
Speaker 1: inside their parents' pouches, and pelicans that live in warm
Speaker 1: climates sometimes open their bills and flap their pouches in
Speaker 1: order to cool down. Fossil records show that pelicans have
Speaker 1: been around in more or less the same form for
Speaker 1: over forty million years, so regardless of how weird the
Speaker 1: pouch might seem to us, it served the birds well.
Speaker 1: Some species are currently listed as threatened, but with the
Speaker 1: continued efforts of conservationists, hopefully pelicans will be around for
Speaker 1: a long time more and continue to amaze and intrigue us,
Speaker 1: especially if they mostly lay off snacking on pigeons and bears.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article does a Pelican's
Speaker 1: bill hold more than its belly can? On how stuffworks
Speaker 1: dot Com, written by Shanna Freeman. Brain Stuff is production
Speaker 1: by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com
Speaker 1: and is produced by Tyler Klang. Before more podcasts my
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