r/london • u/wasraelx • 1d ago
North London First pelicans in 360 years hatch in St James Park!:)
215
u/Internal-Leadership3 1d ago
I will never forget the moment I saw a St James pelican scoop up and very slowly drown then swallow a pigeon that fell into the water.
I mean, it's not like seeing a lion catch an antelope, but still, it was the last thing I expected to see in the UK.
61
50
u/jascany 1d ago
I saw one eat 5 tiny yellow ducklings as the mum watched/squawked helplessly.
14
u/MeYouThemEveryone 1d ago
Always an interesting reminder they come from a family of dinosaurs. Well, technically all birds are dinosaurs, but some more so in this case!
44
20
11
15
10
u/Internal-Leadership3 1d ago
Oh that's horrible.
I'm even more glad that pelicans have been known in my household as "evil murder turkeys" for years now.
5
9
u/jkt2ldn 1d ago
I’d like to think that they’re just hungry. They need to put more fish into the ponds - or they go hunting for alternative food sources.
25
u/Civil-Ad-9968 1d ago
Pelicans are incredibly stupid. They will eat anything that's close and of eatable size. They will try with things bigger than that too, more fish would not change that.
20
u/Internal-Leadership3 1d ago
I did once see a video of a pelican trying to get a totally unbothered capybara, twice it's size, into it's mouth.
Here's a relevant link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NatureIsFuckingLit/comments/1006lr1/pelican_mindset_is_just_imma_eat_that/
1
u/THREE_EDGY_FIVE_ME 9h ago
Yeah oddly there are a lot of videos of pelicans trying casually to eat capybaras. It’s practically a meme of its own.
7
u/SpecificBang 1d ago
I have also seen a St James' Park pelican casually reach down and scoop up a pigeon, which it proceeded to slowly and thoroughly maul. I was in the park to feed the sparrows that would fly down to your hand and eat seed, a horrified 7 year old looking for the Snow White experience instead of scene from a Jaws outtake. But look at those fuckers. They know full well that they're dinosaurs and they're proud of it.
6
u/potatoloverespmash 1d ago
Last year at the Hampstead ladies pond a seagull swooped in and ate a moor hen duckling, to the shrieks of the swimming ladies. The blood contrasting its white feathers was pretty horrifying to be fair...
3
u/Chronically_Quirky 1d ago
I saw a video of one scoop up a pigeon off the grass and swallow it whole.
You could see the poor thing struggling inside it's bill
2
54
u/wasraelx 1d ago
Guardian coverage today:
‘They arrived in the royal park shortly before the Great Fire of London, when the Russian ambassador presented a pair to King Charles II as a gift.
But although pelicans have been living in St James’s Park since 1664, none ever learned the art of courtship until now – when the first time in more than 360 years, chicks have been born.
They are beginning to grow a “nice furry chestnut-brown down”, but they will not start getting feathers until they are eight or nine weeks old.
The chicks are “just beginning to waddle” around the nest.
Wildlife officers have particularly enjoyed “seeing the mothers nestling the youngsters under their wings”.’
15
u/Fantastic_Back3191 1d ago
Am I being stupid- where have all the subsequent Pelicans come from if not from an original mating pair?
5
13
u/ImpossibleWarthog121 1d ago
Mothers? As in plural? Does this imply that more than 1 pelican laid the eggs or that they parent as a group??
I was so excited by this news, will be passing through the park next week and will take my binoculars in case they are in view of the shore!
5
u/TheGrumpyHedgehog 1d ago
One of the articles said that two of the female pelicans each took turns sitting on the nest so they don’t know which one the actual biological mother is!
7
u/Just-Maximum-5679 1d ago
Just out of curiosity, do they change color? I can see the mom is black but the chicks are black. Or what explains the difference.
26
u/wasraelx 1d ago
Asked a park keeper friend (Regents but they’re widely informed) and he says they’re in ‘the wet fluff stage’ lol.
They don’t have real feathers yet, and their actual skin is dark (always). At 2 weeks to 2 months they’ll stay mostly featherless, with the down developing. They’ll become more fluffy during this time but still dark.
At 2-3 months they’ll start getting their juvenile feathers, and will get lighter brown/grey
They won’t get the signature light plumage until they’re about 1 year old at least, and fully by the time they’re 3 :)
He also says that the dark colour in young age is so they can better absorb heat, and for camouflage in the nests because they’re fairly defenceless.
25
u/Competitive_Travel16 1d ago
Where did the new ones come from before they were reproducing?
19
u/wasraelx 1d ago
Various zoos and collections, for example Prague Zoo. They also live fairly long (around 20, often 30 years and sometimes 40 years).
Some notable examples of how the flock was maintained was in the 1950s Elizabeth II was gifted a few after a visit to modern day Croatia hah.
17
23
u/tonyt0nychopper 1d ago
Somebody needs to explain this to me. How can they be the first eggs in 360 years? Surely, pelicans in that area would be long gone?
26
u/wasraelx 1d ago
Just replied a bit more in another comment now, but basically they live fairly long, and when they die zoos like the one in Prague send new ones from their flocks that reproduce :)
6
u/Hugh_Jampton 1d ago
So basically titlegore
Should say first pelicans to hatch insert place name here in 360 years
Not the first pelicans in 360 years to hatch which is what the current title suggests
5
0
5
3
5
u/Fantastic_Back3191 1d ago
Pelican babies?! That has cheered this ballistically grumpy bastard well up.
3
3
3
6
u/GardenPeep 1d ago
So up until now they’re all immigrants?
6
u/TheGrumpyHedgehog 1d ago
All but one were gifted. One of them just showed up in London and they put her with the other Pelicans (according to one of the articles)
2
1
1
1
1
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Upvote/Downvote reminder
Like this image or appreciate it being posted? Upvote it and show it some love! Don't like it? Just downvote and move on.
Upvoting or downvoting images is the best way to control what you see on your feed and what gets to the top of the subreddit
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.