(10 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Newport Beach, California - 7 May 2024
1. Wide, volunteer attempts to grab a sick brown pelican perched atop a building on the Newport Beach pier
2. A sick pelican evades a net along with dozens of other birds
3. City officers stand ready with cages to capture dozens of starving pelicans
4. Dozens of sick pelicans perch on a rooftop
5. A captured sick pelican is put into a cage
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) Debbie McGuire, Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center:
"So we got a call from the lifeguards that there were a lot of sick pelicans at the end of the pier. We just left with our van with about 20 or 25 sick ones. But it's a crisis right now for the pelicans. We're like in crisis mode and we really need help."
7. Officers ready more capture transportation cages
8. A pair of sick pelicans in a transportation cage
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9. SOUNDBITE (English) Debbie McGuire, Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center:
"So what we do know, is that all these birds are coming in at a starvation mode. That means they don't have enough food to sustain them and their bloodwork is showing that they're anemic. It's showing that they're dehydrated and they're very low in their weight. They're coming in at about half their body weight."
10. A volunteer grabs a sick pelican
11. A sick pelican opens its eyes while resting
12. Various of a volunteer running to catch a pelican stranded on the beach
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13. SOUNDBITE (English) Debbie McGuire, Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center:
"We're going to be close to 100 patients in care here probably by the end of the day. What the cause is, usually it's because they can't get enough food, right? But we also know that there's supposedly plenty of anchovies in their food out there in the ocean. So we don't really know why they are not able to forage yet.""
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Huntington Beach, California - 7 May 2024
14. Exterior of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center
15. A staffer rushes a sick pelican to a triage area
16. Pelicans gather in an overflow tent erected to care for sick pelicans
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Newport Beach, California - 7 May 2024
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17. SOUNDBITE (English) Debbie McGuire, Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center:
"They don't have any food in them. They are starving to death. And if we don't get them into care, they will die. Most of these might not make it till tomorrow, If we don't get them in."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Huntington Beach, California - 7 May 2024
18. Various of staffers treating sick pelicans
19. Sick pelicans packed together in a treatment pen
20. Staffers capture a wayward pelican for treatment
STORYLINE:
Scores of sick and starving pelicans have been found in coastal California communities and many others have died.
On a pier in coastal Newport Beach, lifeguards spotted a cluster of two dozen sick pelicans earlier this week, and called in wildlife experts to assist.
Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, said the birds are the latest group that they've tried to save after taking in more than 100 other pelicans that are anemic, dehydrated and weigh only half of what they should.
“They are starving to death and if we don't get them into care, they will die,” McGuire said. “It really is a crisis.”
It is not immediately clear what is sickening the birds. Some wildlife experts noted the pelicans are malnourished though marine life abounds off the Pacific Coast.
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