Louisiana's State Bird is Thriving in the '90s

Threatened by hunting and pesticides earlier this century, the brown pelican has made such a remarkable comeback that it was proposed for removal from the Endangered Species List this past spring.

Mankind hasn't always been the brown pelican's friend. In the early 1900s the bird was hunted for its feathers, which were fashionable on women's hats. Even after the fashion craze, the pelican was still in danger. Since the 1940s, the use of pesticides primarily DDT, killed the birds and made their eggshells too thin to sustain life.

Since the l970s, concern for the brown pelican population has turned to action. In 1972 the EPA banned DDT use in the US. In 1977 the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries brought 90 pelicans from Florida and placed the flock at Chandeleur Sound. By 1989, those 90 birds had multiplied to 4,000, and now there are 28,000 brown pelicans at Chandeleur Sound. Much of the pelican's success is credited to improved water quality in its habitat. The bird feeds primarily on menhaden and mullet, which flourish in plankton-rich water.