08/22/2026
Shelican the Pelican, has been with us since December of last year and is one of the longest-stay patients in our facility. Shelicans journey has been one of many hurdles but she has finally completed the race to the finish line!
Shelican was named after our volunteer Shelly who made a heroic kayak water rescue after a pelican was reported to be stranded on a pond for weeks after the rest of the group she’d been seen with had flown off and migrated for the winter. Upon arrival at our facility Shelican was found to have injuries consistent with striking a power line in flight. She had a “clothesline” type injury to her neck that resulted in major swelling, as well as damage to the primary flight feathers of her left wing. The combination of these injuries left her weakened and unable to eat, fly, or make migration.
Getting nutrition into her was another challenge- she required tube feeding, fluids, and medications for her first several days in our care until her swelling had gone down enough to start consuming small fish on her own again. Once eating on her own she recovered very quickly, developing a voracious appetite and spunky attitude! She was a very cooperative patient for her weekly weigh-ins, stepping onto the scale in her enclosure almost as if she understood what she was being asked to do. She was back to a healthy weight in no time, but we had no choice but to overwinter her at our facility. As we waited months for her to complete a full molt so that she could regrow her primary flight feathers, she was fed hundreds of pounds of fresh caught fish by our volunteer fishermen. Our many thanks to Kent D King and everyone pitched in to help feed this convalescing bird.
Once we noticed new feathers growing in, the last major hurdle was to locate a pod of pelicans to integrate her with. Pelicans are highly social birds and travel in groups, making it important to her success that we find friends for her before it became time to migrate again. We had reports of a single pelican at the spillway of Perry Lake and decided to scope it out. While our volunteers couldn’t find this pelican, they continued to drive around searching and came across a large pod of 50+ pelicans on a nearby island and peninsula! It was quite the hike team carrying Shelican in her giant kennel out to the tip of the land to get her as close as possible to the other pelicans on the island.
She seemed in disbelief at first but then confidently makes her way over to the group and hops right up on the rock and makes herself at home. We will miss Shelican but are so comforted knowing she has made a complete recovery and has been accepted into a new family ❤️
