Dalmatian Pelican

Pelecanus crispus Bruch, 1832

Name in other languages

The Dalmatian Pelican, also a ex-USSR and RF Red Data Book species, is generally rare. The nearest breeding areas are on virtually inaccessible lakes with rich aquatic vegetation on the lower reaches and in the deltas of rivers in eastern Kazakhstan and northern Mongolia. Several records of vagrants are known from Central Siberia and adjacent areas. Two specimens were collected in the early part of the twentieth century: one which is now preserved in the Krasnoyarsk Museum was found in early May 1907, 35 km from Krasnoyarsk; the other bird was collected on the lower Angara River near Yeniseysk (Tugarinov and Buturlin 1911). A young, unidentified pelican, but probably belonging to P. crispus was caught on October 8, 1970, while trawling with a fishing pole on the Yenisey, 10 km north of the mouth of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River; the bird was kept as a pet by the fisherman V. Popov in Bor for several weeks.

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