AR-News: (US) In North Dakota, Pelicans Leave A Breeding Ground for Mystery

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

washingtonpost.com
Birds' Abandonment of Wildlife Refuge Baffles Researchers  
By Steve Friess
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, July 4, 2004; Page A03  
<NITF>CHASE LAKE, N.D. -- Right now from the verdant bluff looming over a  
remote section of shoreline, an observer ought to be able to peer down at swarms 
 of American white pelicans squawking, fluttering and going about the fowl  
business of bre  
<NITF>Yet this year, that perch's vista is instead one of baffling  
desolation, a plain of baby chick carcasses and hundreds of never-to-hatch eggs  simply 
left behind for the snacking pleasure of hungry coyotes and   
<NITF>In a quirky and unprecedented natural mystery, the world's largest  
breeding colony for the birds is eerily vacant. The more than 30,000 pelicans  
that usually spend the summer procreating at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge 
 in central North Dakota returned in their usual droves in April from their  
winter residence on the Gulf Coast, but then they suddenly dispersed in May  
after starting an apparently normal breeding s  
<NITF>Nobody knows for sure why. One biologist, Ron Reynolds of the U.S. Fish 
 and Wildlife Service in Bismarck, N.D., said the birds' diaspora is "as  
mysterious as crop circles." Theories abound, ranging from possible new  
predators or climate shifts causing disruptions, but there is little conclusive  
evidence to make them more than conjecture. Only humans, with minimal access to  a 
region that is 10 miles from the nearest paved road, have largely escaped  
susp 
 
full  story:
_http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26410-2004Jul3.html_ 
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26410-2004Jul3.html)  



~~~*+*~~~*+*~~~*+*~~~*+*~~~*+*~~~*+*~~~*+*~~~*+*~~~*+*~~~
>From beasts we scorn as  soulless,
In forest, field and den,
The cry goes up to witness
The  soullessness of men.
~M. Frida Hartley
/\  /\ 
>' .' <






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