An American white pelican that spent close to seven months at the Calgary Wildlife rehabilitation centre was released on Thursday at Frank Lake, a protected wetland east of High River.
When staff opened the gate of the bird’s crate, the pelican quickly stepped out – but didn’t fly off right away.
“It was pretty amazing,” said Kyla Rae, clinic supervisor. “I think he was just checking the space out, looking around feeling the wind; seeing which way it was going.”
After a few minutes, the pelican flew off and landed on the lake.
Not long after landing, the pelican started fishing.
Rae said the decision to release the bird at Frank Lake was made with careful consideration.
“Pelicans are group birds; they don’t particularly do well on their own,” she said. “We wanted to find a place that was quiet where he could have some time to strengthen his wings for the summer and still have other pelicans around.”
About five other pelicans were in sight of the new addition on Thursday.
One eventually went over and swam beside him.
Melanie Whalen, director of animal care and wildlife services, says it was good to see.
“We needed to get him back with a flock,” she said. “This is really helpful -- that there’s a flock of pelicans here. This is great habitat for them; there’s lots of food.”
The pelican arrived at Calgary Wildlife in October 2025 after it was found in distress in northeast Calgary.
Officials say one if its wing tips was broken and it was underweight from not eating because it had a pouch full of lice.
“He was really skinny,” Rae said. “He had some injuries to his feet up top and bottom – I’m not sure how he did that – he had a condition called pododermatitis, which is called bumble foot, so he had little lumps on the bottom of his feet.”
The bird’s rehab was extensive, and officials say he was eating $250-worth of fish a week.
“He really liked the salmon — for a while he was quite a diva with the salmon,” Rae said.
“We rely heavily on public donations to help us fund this type of work,” Whalen said.
Whalen says the pelican also showed signs of lead poisoning likely from ingesting a fish that swallowed a lead weight.
“We try to educate people on buying alternatives to lead sinkers – and there are alternatives out there that you can buy now so that actually will help prevent lead poisoning.”
