Birders

AndyS

(14,559 posts) Mon Jan 2, 2023, 02:23 PM Jan 2023

Eastern Brown Pelicans

Landing in formation. Tarpon Springs, FL.
Olympus EM5, 75-300

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Eastern Brown Pelicans (Original Post) AndyS Jan 2023 OP

It's interesting that they incubate their eggs with the skin of their feet Donkees Jan 2023 #1

That IS interesting! I was aware of the DDT issue. AndyS Jan 2023 #2

Donkees

(32,437 posts)

1. It's interesting that they incubate their eggs with the skin of their feet

Reply to AndyS (Original post)

Mon Jan 2, 2023, 03:55 PM

Jan 2023

A newly hatched pelican on Virginia’s Eastern Shore is featherless. (Ruth Boettcher/Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources)

Pelicans incubate their eggs with the skin of their feet, essentially standing on the eggs to keep them warm. In the mid-twentieth century the pesticide DDT caused pelicans to lay thinner eggs that cracked under the weight of incubating parents. After nearly disappearing from North America in the 1960s and 1970s, Brown Pelicans made a full comeback thanks to pesticide regulations.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown_Pelican/overview

AndyS

(14,559 posts)

2. That IS interesting! I was aware of the DDT issue.

Reply to Donkees (Reply #1)

Mon Jan 2, 2023, 04:05 PM

Jan 2023

My eldest brother was a pioneer in the crop dusting industry which was responsible for the DDT calamity.

To his dying day he maintained that it was all worth it to kill mosquitos and prevent malaria ignoring the fact that 90% of DDT application was agricultural.

It's odd how anything that impinges on your income can be justified . . .

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