March 2008 / Another True Story/ 1 of 2

We were at Artis the zoo when a stooping blue heron got too close to a great white pelican, pink actually, who dragged the squawking bird down the sloped bank into the water of the bird pond, having first caught the heron's wing and shoulder in its large beak...

...and the pelican man-handled the prehistoric-looking heron into the middle of the pond, churning water with its large webbed feet, all the while seeming to think himself the star in an episode of Attenborough's Trials Of Life.

To give a bit of background to the story, the herons are voluntary residents at the zoo, their colony high in the trees above the pelican pond. In the zoo the herons live to a large extent by poaching fish from the inmates; penguins, sea lions, storks, flamingos, and to a lesser extent the pelicans.

One time I saw a heron smack a penguin on the back of the head with its wing, but that's a different story.

>>keep reading more PELICAN CRAZY ADVENTURE