Abandoned Breeding Ground a Mystery

Abandoned breeding ground a mystery

In North Dakota, Pelicans Leave A Breeding Ground for Mystery:
Birds' Abandonment of Wildlife Refuge Baffles Researchers
Washington Post, Sunday, July 4, 2004; Page A03

CHASE LAKE, N.D. -- Right now from the verdant bluff looming over a remote
section of shoreline, an observer ought to be able to peer down at swarms of
American white pelicans squawking, fluttering and going about the fowl
business of breeding.

Yet this year, that perch's vista is instead one of baffling desolation, a
plain of baby chick carcasses and hundreds of never-to-hatch eggs simply left
behind for the snacking pleasure of hungry coyotes and gulls.

In a quirky and unprecedented natural mystery, the world's largest breeding
colony for the birds is eerily vacant. The more than 30,000 pelicans that
usually spend the summer procreating at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in
central North Dakota returned in their usual droves in April from their winter
residence on the Gulf Coast, but then they suddenly dispersed in May after
starting an apparently normal breeding season.

Nobody knows for sure why. One biologist, Ron Reynolds of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service in Bismarck, N.D., said the birds' diaspora is "as mysterious
as crop circles."

Full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2004Jul3.html