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Brown Pelicans Impacted by BP Oil Spill
The Brown Pelican is a bird that has gone through a great deal of hardship in the last century. The Brown Pelicans beautiful, unique feathers were once coveted by hunters, which lead to over hunting of the bird. While over hunting was a great threat to the bird's prosperity, the use of the chemical DDT in the Gulf Coast was an even greater threat. Thousands of birds were wiped out by the chemical, resulting in the placement of the Brown Pelican on the endangered species list. After a great deal of effort on the parts of conservationists and with the help of a ban on DDT, the Pelican was slowly able to rebuild its population and be removed from the endangered species list in November of 2009. The joys of the Brown Pelicans recovery were short lived however; with the BP oil spill again threatening their population.
The BP oil spill has threatened the lives of many animals and birds throughout the Gulf Coast, but the oil spill is especially threatening to the Brown Pelican's lifestyle. Out of eight species of pelican, the Brown Pelican is the only one that dives into the ocean to capture its food. The remains of the oil spill left in the ocean directly affect their hunting process. When the birds dive into the water they run the risk of becoming covered in oil, gathering oil into their mouths or capturing tainted fish. All three of these issues lead to different risks. When oil gets onto a Brown Pelican's feathers, it can be fatal. Oil tampers with the pelican's natural ability to create insulation and maintain a healthy body temperature. When oil goes into the feathers, this ability is lost and a Brown Pelican can easily contract hypothermia, which can quite often cause death. Ingesting oil, either through the water or through tainted fish, can also be fatal for the pelicans. The gathering of tainted fish does not only affect one pelican, but several. Brown Pelicans feed their young with the fish gathered during their hunting sessions and if a pelican brings back tainted fish to their young an entire young generation can be negatively effected.
In addition to directly affecting the health of Brown Pelicans, the BP oil spill also has affected the nesting grounds of the birds. The Brown Pelican nests along the barrier islands off the coast of Louisiana. While biologists initially hoped that the effects of the spill would not reach that far, the islands have been exposed to the spill. This has led to unfit conditions for the Pelicans to nest, which in turn has drastically thrown off the Brown Pelican's breeding cycle. With the difficulties of nesting and reproduction, the Brown Pelicans population numbers are sure to fall.
The exact number of Brown Pelicans killed by the BP oil spill is hard to determine. Though it is known that 300-400 Pelicans have been recovered along the Louisiana coast, this number is but a fraction of the number of Brown Pelicans affected by the spill. The long term effects of the oil spill have yet to be seen and it is unknown how many more Brown Pelicans will die as a result of health difficulties created by oil exposure. Biologists and volunteers have been doing their best to make the final number of Brown Pelican deaths as low as possible as a result of this disaster. Efforts have been made to clean pelicans covered in oil, mitigating their risk of hypothermia. Pelicans that have ingested oil have been given medication to limit the amount of oil that their bodies absorb. While the Brown Pelican may still remain off the endangered species list, it does not make the suffering they have withstood as a result of the BP oil spill any less of a tragedy.
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