Analysis Of Scoop: Last Of The Brown Pelican

As a toddler, I was fascinated with every animal species after realizing their specialized set of characteristics and behaviors through flipping through makeshift colored-books. However, I became primarily interested in the brown pelican during my kindergarten years, where I read Scoop: Last of the Brown Pelicans by Robert McClung at my elementary school’s library. This child book made me became mesmerized with brown pelicans and appreciate their uniqueness. It was at this time that I learned that pelicans stood out from most aviary species not just by being large, but by having exclusive and fragile anatomical features that allowed the species to thrive in a complex coastal environment for nearly a millennium, supposedly free of human influences.
A pelican’s pouch can be best described as a thin, wrinkled plastic bag that is attached to the bird’s mouth. The sac is made of a film-like material that can stretch out to an incredible capacity, much more than the stomach can hold. One of the most defining and perhaps important features of the brown pelican is its pouch, which effectively acts as a net. As an experienced fisherman, the bird precisely “scoops” up minnows, herring and other small fish that swim under the ocean’s foamy surface. If a fish is caught, the pouch appears to conform and shrink-wrap itself around the fish, allowing the pelican to maneuver the helpless being into its large trachea in order to be eaten. Just as how plastic bags can be recycled for different purposes, the pelican’s pouch performs other necessary functions vital to the population’s survival. During arid conditions, the pelican is able to expand the pouch and wave it around, so body heat can be dissipated into the atmosphere. By behaving similar to a flag, the throat sac is able to keep the brown pelican cool even in some of the harshest
Unlike most pelican species, the brown pelican dives completely under the rough water surface to entrap prey in its pouch, making the species highly susceptible to ingesting spilled petroleum products. In addition, brown pelicans live in high-risk areas where there is a substantial amount of oil drilling such as California, Florida, and throughout the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. During the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, many brown pelican species became completely lathered in the goopy substance, making them become statues and either starve to death or die from the onset of hypothermia. Like most animals, the brown pelican has specifically evolved to live in a specialized environment and when humans interfere in the pelican’s habitat, the bird’s health and even the survival rate of its young decline. Through examining the struggles of a brown pelican, it is easy to believe that even the most adapted and experienced creatures are at the mercy of human