What’s on the menu at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station?
Bruce the Virginia opossum, who has neurological trauma with his back limbs, eats chunks of fruit, vegetables, ferret chow, small fish, yogurt and mealworms. Charlie the resident blue jay might get one peanut, some earthworms, strawberries and seed. “We usually know species’ diets based on wildlife rehab books and on their natural history,” says wildlife rehabilitation manager Yaritza Acosta. The staff buy insects in bulk online and get produce from grocery stores and donations.
Forty years ago, the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station consisted of little more than tool shed and a single aviary to care for injured brown pelicans. Today, it’s an internationally recognized center for rehabilitating seabirds and native birds, mammals and reptiles that are orphaned, injured in window strikes or car collisions, attacked by cats or dogs, or hurt by fishing line and hooks. In 2018, their 1,426 patient admissions included 87 brown pelicans, six yellow-bellied sapsuckers, 28 Eastern screech owls, two Florida box turtles and one black racer.
Bruce the Virginia opossum, who has neurological trauma with his back limbs, eats chunks of fruit, vegetables, ferret chow, small fish, yogurt and mealworms. Charlie the resident blue jay might get one peanut, some earthworms, strawberries and seed. “We usually know species’ diets based on wildlife rehab books and on their natural history,” says wildlife rehabilitation manager Yaritza Acosta. The staff buy insects in bulk online and get produce from grocery stores and donations.
Forty years ago, the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station consisted of little more than tool shed and a single aviary to care for injured brown pelicans. Today, it’s an internationally recognized center for rehabilitating seabirds and native birds, mammals and reptiles that are orphaned, injured in window strikes or car collisions, attacked by cats or dogs, or hurt by fishing line and hooks. In 2018, their 1,426 patient admissions included 87 brown pelicans, six yellow-bellied sapsuckers, 28 Eastern screech owls, two Florida box turtles and one black racer.
