Pacific Penguins Fall to Mystery Illness

Rescued penguins being fed at the International Bird Rescue Center facility in San Pedro, California.

Wildlife researchers say they are at a loss to explain why many adult pelicans have suddenly begun to die from a mysterious malady along the coast of southern Oregon, southward through California to Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

Hundreds of disoriented birds have turned up wandering along roads and crashing into cars or boats. Still others have been found dead.

“These birds are on the freeway, getting run over,” said Jay Holcomb, executive director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center in San Pedro, California.

There is typically a small number of brown pelicans that die off at this time of year, but the volume of dead birds found over the past week is far greater than normal.

Some wildlife experts think a marine neurotoxin created by microscopic algae could be killing the birds.

Others think affected pelicans may have ingested chemicals from fire retardants used to fight Southern California’s firestorms last year, flushed into the ocean by recent heavy rainfall.

Photo: International Bird Rescue Center