The special pink pelican that attracted a lot of attention in Helvoirt last week was caught at Bernardus Golf Course in Cromvoirt. The pink pelican had been missing from an animal park in Belgium for two weeks. “They were really surprised that he was found here,” says Pascalle van der Ven, coordinator of the Den Bosch Animal Ambulance.
The Animal Ambulance received the golden tip from Jan Harteman, a well-known bird breeder and animal care teacher. “He has access to a file of all the animal parks in Europe and that’s how he found out,” Pascalle explains. The ring shows that the pelican was born in Lithuania and previously lived in two Dutch zoos and recently moved to Belgium.
The exotic bird was first seen in Helvoirt last week and has been fluttering around happily ever since. Golf course employees discovered the bird on Saturday and called animal ambulance. Previous capture attempts failed. As soon as the beast saw people coming, he took off.
“We had to retrain ourselves a bit.”
In the end, the pelican was caught quite simply: the bird was lured with a bucket of fish. “The pelican came over quickly and was really hungry.” An employee of Safari Park de Beekse Bergen was then able to easily pick up the pelican.
The pink pelican turns out to be a male and is eleven years old, they now know at the Animal Ambulance. “We had to train ourselves a bit, because something like this is really very special.” Males weigh about nine to eleven kilos, can grow to about 1.40 to 1.78 meters in length and live an average of 35 years. The bird species occurs in much of southeastern Europe, Africa, western and central Asia and India.
“It was quite a flight for the pelican.”
This pink pelican was taken in ‘tired and hungry, but healthy’ by the Beekse Bergen, who have already contacted the Belgian zoo. “No, they prefer not to be named. But I can say that it has been quite a flight for the pelican.”
The southern neighbors will soon come to pick up the pelican,” says Pascalle. She is happy that it all ended well. “Yes, it’s really nice that it has become a story with a happy ending.”
WE WROTE THIS PREVIOUSLY ABOUT THE PINK PELICAN:
Ringed pelican flies around Helvoirt, mystery who owns the bird
Lost pelican shows up again, this time in a pond at a golf course