The shot Great White Pelican was discovered by a team of Green Balkans during the mid-winter bird census last week, the newspaper Dnevnik informs. The wounded bird was taken to the Rescue Center in the town of Stara Zagora.
Veterinarians from the center reported that the both wings of the bird, and her body are affected by the pellets of an air rifle. The young pelican is also with a broken foot. It is not yet clear what the damage to the internal organs is.
The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Thracian University has helped with free radiography and consultation by Prof. Galina Simeonova in order for the bird to fly again – although there is no certainty that it will succeed.
The Great White Pelican is not a hunting object and is protected by the Bulgarian Biodiversity Act as part of the valuable European nature protected by the Natura 2000 network.
His status is “extinct” according to the Red Book of Bulgaria, which specifies that it is passing and hardly ever wintering in our country, and during the migration occurs mainly along the Black Sea coast.
The species is distributed in the Volga and Danube Delta, the Manic, Manic-Gudillo and Prespa Lakes, and has a total of about 4000 pairs across Europe.