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On 1/24/2011 3:09 AM, Elizabeth Doull wrote:
> A pelican passport would fit the bill
* having read this, we were perfectly prepped to hear Hope Swinimer on
As it Happens just now.
fred.
====================================================
> By PAT LEE
> Chronicle Herald, A1-A2
> Staff Reporter
> January 24, 2011
>
> A wayward pelican named after a Dartmouth strip club, blown off course
> during hurricane Earl, is having a bit of an emigration problem.
>
> Wildlife rehabber Hope Swinimer has been unsuccessfully trying to get Ralph
> sent to a bird sanctuary south of the border since he was spotted on the
> roof of Ralph's Place a couple of days after the Sept. 4 storm.
>
> Swinimer, founder of Hope for Wildlife in Seaforth, said she can't get
> wildlife officials in the United States to return her calls about getting an
> import permit for the brown pelican.
>
> Nova Scotia's Natural Resources Department has issued the required export
> paperwork.
>
> Needless to say, it's a bit cold for Ralph these days.
>
> "A pelican is used to the warmer climate," she said Sunday.
>
> "But we keep it warm enough in his room so that his water never freezes, and
> he seems to be coping with it quite well."
>
> Swinimer said Ralph's bit of bad navigating in the fall was brought to her
> attention while at her job as manager of the Dartmouth Veterinary Hospital
> on Tacoma Drive.
>
> Someone called to say a pelican was on the roof of Ralph's Place on nearby
> Main Street.
>
> "I kind of thought it might be a joke, or sometimes people get their birds
> mixed up," she said, but she wandered over with a blanket, just in case.
>
> Sure enough, it was a pelican, but the good folks at Ralph's thought she was
> "crazy" and wouldn't let her on the roof.
>
> "They basically escorted me out," she remembered, laughing. As Swinimer was
> leaving the strip club, Ralph decided to head up Main Street for a bite to
> eat at the Golden Arches.
>
> Unfortunately, by this time he had drawn an audience and created a bit of a
> traffic jam, almost being hit by a car a couple of times.
>
> He flew away from McDonald's with a crowd in tow and ended up over at the
> plaza on Tacoma Drive. There, he smashed into the front window of the Dollar
> Store and knocked himself a bit senseless.
>
> Swinimer said she was able to toss a blanket over him at that point and rush
> him across the street to the vet clinic for X-rays and a checkup.
>
> "He had nothing broken, thank heavens," she said.
>
> Since then, the 3.3-kilogram pelican has been cared for at her wildlife
> sanctuary, living in a barn and fed a steady diet of herring. Swinimer said
> the barn is unheated but a heat lamp keeps him relatively comfortable and he
> has a big tub for a daily dip.
>
> Ralph's age is unknown, but he's thought to be young as his adult colours
> haven't come in yet. It may also explain why he got confused and off course
> during the hurricane Swinimer said she tries to keep animals in her care
> wild in preparation for release, but it's been difficult with Ralph as he
> has to be hand-fed - or hand-tossed, as it were, as he likes to catch fish
> in the air - several times a day by staff and volunteers.
>
> They tried putting his fish in a bowl so he could feed himself, but he
> refused.
>
> "He's just got used to hanging out with us and following us around."
>
> Several years ago, Swinimer sent another pelican to Florida without a hitch
> and she thought Ralph would get the same treatment.
>
> A bird sanctuary in Florida was set to take him, but no one from the state
> ever responded to her calls about a permit. She's looking at a sanctuary in
> North Carolina, but is having the same problem.
>
> She said there are Canadian zoos that will take the pelican, but she prefers
> to see him sent to a sanctuary for rehabilitation and eventual release back
> into the wild.
>
> "We just need a yes or no from the U.S. government."
>
> ......
> Ralph, a pelican blown off course by hurricane Earl in September and rescued
> in Dartmouth, is having trouble getting back into the United States. He's
> being cared for at Hope for Wildlife in Seaforth.
>
>
--
fred schueler
------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
now in the field on the Thirty Years Later Expedition -
http://fragileinheritance.org/projects/thirty/thirtyintro.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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