Australian Pelicans Are in Danger

The article is written by Caroline Horn.

It is from ABC South East SA.

The topic is Avian Influenza.

There are eight types of pelicans in the world, and the Australian pelican is one of them.

Greg Johnston is traveling through the Coorong to help pelicans and other birds survive the bird flu.

He says we need to take care of the animals' homes so they can recover.

Dr. Greg Johnston has been studying South Australia's pelicans for 37 years.

There are over 200 cases of the H5N1 bird flu in Australia, and it is spreading.

As a professor at Flinders University, Johnston is worried about what the bird flu will do to the pelicans and other birds.

The Coorong is a safe place for Australian pelicans to have babies, and thousands of them live there.

Johnston was expecting the bird flu to come to Australia, and now it is here.

Pelicans can live up to 25 years in the wild and even longer in captivity.

The bird flu could kill 60 to 70 percent of the pelicans in the Coorong in the first wave.

The book and movie Storm Boy made the pelican famous in Australia.

Johnston says the next few years will be very hard for pelicans and other birds and animals.

He says viruses change like other living things, and this makes them harder to fight.

The European black-headed gull was not affected by the bird flu at first, but then it was badly hit.

Pelicans were very badly affected by the bird flu from the start, and it got even worse the next year.

Most birds will have some survivors if they have safe places to live.

There used to be many birds in the Coorong, but now there are fewer.

In the 1980s, 250,000 birds came to the Coorong, but by 2010, there were only 25,000.

The number of pelicans in Australia's southeast has been going down by 1 percent each year for 40 years.

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is being reviewed, and people are waiting to see what will happen to the Coorong.

The Coorong is a special place for birds, and people are working to protect it.

Skipper Joel Hirsch takes tourists to the Coorong and shows them the pelicans and other birds.

The dredger helps keep the mouth of the Murray River open, and it has been doing this since 2002.

Hirsch loves the Coorong and thinks it is a magical place.

He talks to tourists about the environment and the challenges the birds are facing.

The movie Storm Boy was filmed in the Coorong, and it made the pelican famous.

The pelican that starred in the movie lived in Adelaide Zoo for many years.

Pelicans can live for about 25 years in the wild.

Mark Koolmatrie is a Tanganekald elder from the Ngarrindjeri Nation, and he has a special connection to the pelicans.

He runs cultural tours and teaches people about the birds and the environment.

Koolmatrie says the nori, kungari, and waatji pulyeri are all important to the Ngarrindjeri people.

He is worried about the pelicans and wants the government to help protect them.

Koolmatrie says the dredge shows that there is not enough water in the Coorong.

He wants people to visit the Coorong and see the birds and the environment.

He says people should come and support the birds and the Coorong.

Koolmatrie wants people to care about the birds and the environment.

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