Some news about the very slow project of reintroducing Dalmatian Pelicans to north-western Europe.
RESTORE Convenes Experts to Explore Pelican Return to the UK - Restore
"RESTORE’S PELICAN PANEL TAKES FLIGHT AS RSPB, WWT, ZSL, ROYAL SOCIETY OF WILDLIFE TRUSTS, AND NATURAL ENGLAND MEET – TO DISCUSS THE FUTURE OF BRITAIN’S LARGEST BIRD.
On 30th April this year, Britain’s finest Bird Brains, convened by RESTORE, met to discuss the potential reintroduction of Dalmatian Pelicans to the British Isles.
Right now, there is a missing gap in Britain’s avifauna: arguably, the largest of gaps. A three-metre-wingspan gap. A gap in the awe and wonder our ancestors would have enjoyed, watching the world’s largest flying bird soar over the skies of Avalon, the Fens, Broads and even the Humber Estuary. That avian gap is the largest living bird that has yet to return to our shores: the Dalmatian Pelican.
With over 100 years’ of ornithological experience on the Pelican Panel, chaired by RESTORE’s founding director Benedict Macdonald, it was a chance for those who have shaped our bird conservation, aviculture and licensing to come together for serious discussion and debate.
Since the publication of
Rebirding in April 2019, awareness has grown of the degree to which our avian baseline has shifted not over decades – but centuries. A range of wetland species, from furtive Baillon’s crakes to resplendent Ruffs, have virtually disappeared from the wetland landscape. Others, such as common crane, once completely extirpated, have recolonised, and benefited from inspirational reintroduction efforts by RSPB and WWT.
Dalmatian Pelicans, however, have lost an entire northern European population. Once breeding from the Somerset Levels to the Netherlands, Denmark and the Rhone Valley in Germany, this majestic megafauna was certainly hunted for food, and may also have been lost due to wetland drainage come the Middle Ages. It currently persists only as a species in southern Europe. But reintroducing pelicans to the UK could proof the entire species’ future against extinction.
The Pelican Panel, the first of 2025, heard inspirational insights from a range of speakers, including
RSPB England director Michael Coppleston, who focused upon how wetland restoration efforts especially on the Avalon Marshes could be pertinent to pelican reintroductions. Michael and his organisation have pioneered a whole range of wetland restoration schemes and species-specific recoveries, such as that of the bittern, so it was wonderful to hear how the RSPB’s science-led approach could potentially apply to the restoration of another fish-eating species, which is expected to remain confined largely to well-protected wetlands.
The
Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, renowned for their species reintroduction and avicultural work – led on the panel by Clare Dinnis – have pioneered success in large wetland bird reintroductions such as the Great Crane Project, which has restored this magnificent wetland species to large areas of south-western England, Wales and the Midlands. The WWT talked about the avicultural practicalities of breeding and nurturing Dalmatian pelicans.
ZSL’s Lucia Snyderman shares fascinating insights into the ecological history of Dalmatian Pelicans in Britain. Her vivid analyses of how pelicans were eaten by our ancestors, living in the Avalon Marshes, really brought to life the reality of how pelicans may have vanished, and her stable isotope analysis of British pelican bones will reveal what pelicans used to eat, and how they used to fish within our shores.
Natural England, whose species reintroduction taskforce continues to grow in scope and ambition, joined the panel to share their valuable inputs on how such an ambitious reintroduction could be taken forwards, and the range of stakeholders that the panel should be bringing together over the coming months.
This first panel explored at length the available Dalmatian Pelican habitat in Britain. It was cautiously agreed that the Avalon Marshes in Somerset, home now to some of the most contiguous, undisturbed and fish-rich reed-beds in the country, would be one of the foremost areas for consideration. And evidence was put forwards by RESTORE’s species restoration ecologist, Peter Cooper, for the pelicans’ ability to fly long distances to forage, and their ability to use coastal habitats – such as the Severn Estuary – in winter months. With Britain’s rich coastline, this was considered an important factor by all on the Panel, as any British pelicans would undoubtedly benefit from the riches of our estuaries and coasts.
The second panel, convened by Restore later this year, will focus on stakeholder engagement, including angling, and international collaboration. "
(I personally think that there is little more to be discovered than picking the biggest wetland, building a wooden nest platform with dummies of adult pelicans, releasing some zoo or wild juveniles, and hoping the birds figure it out themselves. Escaped zoo pelicans proven remarkably able to live in the wild, and there is no experience of reintroducing pelicans otherwise).