For more than a decade, the hundreds of brown pelicans that nested among the mangrove shrubs on Queen Bess Island, south of New Orleans, were living proof that a species brought to the edge of extinction could come back and thrive.
The island was one of three sites in Louisiana where pelicans were reintroduced after pesticides wiped them out in the state in the 1960s.
But on Thursday, 29 of them, their feathers so coated in thick brown sludge that their white and grey markings were obscured, were airlifted to a bird rehabilitation centre in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, the latest victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Another dozen went to other rescue centres.
No comments:
Post a Comment