How Do Pelicans Work?

to the bottom of its long neck. This pouch allows the pelican to engage in a strange form of filter feeding. The bird can fly low over the water, open and speak wide, and dip down to scoop up a fish the way you might catch a guppy in a cup with a lot of water along with it. A while making a landing. The googler pouch then lets the water drain out. The pelican can tip back its head and swallow just the fish. There are either seven or eight

species of pelican, depending on which researchers you ask. There's some argument about subspecies, but all pelicans have a similar awkward appearance. No shade intended. That's a science fact, though They do vary in their size, color, territory, and behavior. Some species nest in trees, while others build homes for

themselves on the ground or in rocks. Pelicans can weighs little as six pounds a bit less than three kilos, and as much as thirty pounds about thirteen and a half kilos, and they live on every continent except Antarctica. Among the pelicans, the winner for sheer bill size is the Australian pelican. Its bill can be up to a foot and a half long that's about half a meter. Pelicans are very social animals, building their nests in colonies.

The brown pelt is unusual because it's the only species to feed by diving headfirst into the water, which is called plunge diving. Most other pelicans work together to herd schools of fish into shallow water. They then dive in and scoop up the fish, often all together as a group. Sometimes pelicans will even tag along with other types of birds, tracking their prey in the water, and then steal the fish right out from under them. But it's all fair

in fishery. Pelicans themselves are victims of piracy. On occasion, it can take a few seconds for a pelican to drain all that water out of its pouch, during which time a seagull, often standing on the pelican's head and pecking at it as a distraction, will dart into its open bill and steal the fish. Pelicans are part of the order Pelicanniforms, which includes around fifty species of water birds.

These birds are distinguished from other orders by their forewhebbed toes, the fact that they breathe through their mouths instead of nail or nostrils, and their tendency to feed on marine animals. And then, of course there's that gooler skin. Though pelicans are the only birds with such a huge pouch that it can use it to catch meals, other members of the order, like the great frigate bird, can puff their

gooler skin up with air during courtship displays. Pelican's lower mandible, that is the bottom half of its bill, is basically just a frame around that pouch. By bending its neck, it can even turn its pouch inside out. Another unique feature is the hook at the tip of the pelican's upper mandible. The top half of its bill, which helps grab onto particularly slippery or wiggly fish. Here's how it works.

After locating and scooping up its prey, the pelican opens its bill and slowly contracts its pouch to empty out the water while keeping the fish inside. Then, with a jerk of the bird's head, the fish slides down the hat. If a fish is particularly large, the pelican might manipulate it so the fish goes down head first, which helps prevent it from getting stuck. A pelican can't eat or fly away if its pouch is still full of water,

so that draining process is very important. Okay, can that beak and its pouch really hold more than a pelican's stomach? There's a reason we ask this question. There was a limerick written by humorist Dixon linear Merit in nineteen ten that goes, oh, a wondrous bird is the pelican. His bill holds more than his pelican. He can take in his beak enough food for a week. But I'm darned if I know how the helican and the limerick is partially accurate. A pelican's bill does have a larger capacity

than its stomach. Its stomach can hold up to about a gallon just under four liters, while its pouch can hold up to about three gallons or elevenish leaders. But wh well a pelican might technically be able to take enough food in its bill for a week, it doesn't store food there, so what is on the menu. While most pelicans eat fish exclusively, they can be opportunistic eaters

of lizards, frogs, crabs, and lobsters. Pelicans have even been observed eating smaller birds, sometimes scooping up water in order to drown them before swallowing back. In two thousand and six, a photographer in London's Saint James Park recorded an extraordinary site. Of the five pelicans living in the park were fed a diet of fish, but apparently that wasn't enough for one of them. A pelican picked up a pigeon from the sidewalk and swallowed it, to the shock and amazement

of park visitors. Since the incident, other people have claimed to see the Saint James Park pelicans eating pigeons. A representative for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds so that this behavior was highly unusual and likely attributed to the bird's contact with people and its more urban environment.

There is, however, other photographic evidence of pelicans trying any number of unusual meals out for size, attempting to stretch their beaks around everything from cats and dogs to cows and capaberas to bear cubs and giraffes, though the pelican's photographed seem to have succeeded only in mildly annoying the potential meals in question. Aside from catching or annoying their

potential prey, pelicans use their bill for other things. During courtship, male pelicans often stretch out and flap their pouches and clap their bills. They may also lash out at rivals and other threatening animals with that sharp hook at the end of the bill. Baby chicks are fed by both parents,

who regurgitate partially digested fish for them to eat. Chicks that are old enough to eat whole fish but not yet ready to hunt may be seen fishing for dinner inside their parents' pouches, and pelicans that live in warm climates sometimes open their bills and flap their pouches in order to cool down. Fossil records show that pelicans have been around in more or less the same form for over forty million years, so regardless of how weird the pouch might seem to us, it served the birds well.

Some species are currently listed as threatened, but with the continued efforts of conservationists, hopefully pelicans will be around for a long time more and continue to amaze and intrigue us, especially if they mostly lay off snacking on pigeons and bears. Today's episode is based on the article does a Pelican's bill hold more than its belly can? On how stuffworks dot Com, written by Shanna Freeman. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com

and is produced by Tyler Klang. Before more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,