Pelicans learn to avoid river otters after 73 birds killed in lagoon
A study conducted at Abbotts Lagoon in California reveals that brown pelicans are learning to avoid river otters after a high number of predation incidents. Researchers documented the otters' hunting behavior, which involves drowning the birds.
Why it matters
The study provides rare insights into predator-prey dynamics between recovering wildlife populations in a changing ecosystem.
Wildlife researchers checking the shores of Abbotts Lagoon on California’s Point Reyes peninsula found 73 dead brown pelicans killed by river otters over 19 visits. Recent observations show that the large seabirds may finally be learning to fly away when otters come near.The findings, published in a study in the IUCN Otter Specialist Group Bulletin and reported by Discover Magazine, show a rare hunting relationship between two animal groups that are recovering in numbers in Northern California.Researchers Terence Carroll and Megan Isadore, co-founders of the River Otter Ecology Project, led the study. They first saw an attack at Abbotts Lagoon in October 2021, watching an otter drag a pelican with a six-foot wingspan underwater to drown it.
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