The first motto of Louisiana was incorporated with the long-recognized symbol of the Brown Pelican, and bore in Latin the message our state’s founders had surely hoped would be embodied in its people: Non sibi sed suis – not for oneself, but for one’s own. The motto has since been replaced by “Union, Justice & Confidence,” but the Brown Pelican endures as the official symbol of Louisiana. And last month, the revered animal that adorns the state flag was officially removed from the list of endangered species in Louisiana.
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu joined Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Sam Hamilton at a Nov. 11 press conference to announce the bird’s removal from the list. “I am extremely proud that Louisiana, and the shores of Lake Pontchartrain in particular, has been chosen to host today’s important announcement,” said Sen. Landrieu. “It is a tribute to the great work that has gone into saving this lake and estuary. I thank Assistant Secretary Strickland for being a committed partner in our ongoing coastal restoration and protection efforts.”
The Brown Pelican was placed on the federal Endangered Species list nearly 40 years ago, after ecologists and wildlife biologists discovered the then-common pesticide DDT was making its way into the pelican population through its diet of fish. The poison was resulting in the deaths of the pelicans in large numbers, as the DDT caused the pelicans to lay brittle eggs which broke under the weight of brooding mothers. It was a scene too reminiscent of the Louisiana emblem, which shows the fabled pelican feeding its children from its own breast rather than let them starve.
Additional threats to the Brown Pelican included being hunted for its feathers and the ongoing shrinking of its coastal habitat due to erosion along the Gulf of Mexico coastline. “After being hunted for its feathers, facing devastating effects from the pesticide DDT and suffering from widespread coastal habitat loss, the pelican has made a remarkable recovery,” Strickland said. “We once again see healthy flocks of pelicans in the air over our shores.”
Strickland also said that while the Brown Pelican was added to the Endangered Species list less than 40 years ago, the battle for its survival dates back much longer. “Pelicans began to decline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” Strickland said. “President Theodore Roosevelt – probably our greatest conservationist president – responded by creating the wildlife refuge system. That has led to the creation of (more than 400) wildlife conservation areas around the country.”
That initial decline in the pelican population was due to over hunting, Strickland said, but as technology advanced so did the threats to wildlife. “After World War II, the pelican population began to plummet because of widespread use of DDT and other pesticides,” Strickland said. “Adult pelicans with high concentrations of DDT were unable to properly form calcium. The eggs they laid couldn’t be hatched.” DDT was banned in 1972.
Brown Pelicans were removed from the Endangered Species list in Florida, Alabama and the Atlantic Coast in 1985. The removal from Louisiana’s list announced last month also removes the bird from the Endangered Species list in all remaining habitat areas. An estimated 650,000 Brown Pelicans now live and thrive in North American coastal areas, including Louisiana.
The Brown Pelican was adopted as Louisiana’s Official State Bird in 1966, long after it first graced the state flag, and only four years before Congress included it in the Endangered Species Preservation Act. It was adopted onto the state’s Great Seal in 1902 and became a part of the State Flag in 1912, according to State websites.
Noted ornithologist and artist John James Audubon measured the adult male Brown Pelican at 52 inches long with an 80-inch wingspan. The females, he noted, are “considerably larger.”
Landrieu said the comeback of the Brown Pelican represents more than just an environmental success, indicating the commercially vital Louisiana coast can exist as an economic engine while respecting the natural resources of our state and nation. “Today’s success story should tell the entire nation that we can achieve a balance for our working coast, a balanae that protects the most fragile resources – like the eggs of the brown pelican,” Landrieu said. “We’ve worked together, moving out of business as usual. In the same way, we will continue to work in a new approach to save this great coastline. Louisiana’s future can be a success story of balancing resources and critical responsibilities.
“Louisiana is a working coast of more than two million people,” the senator said. “We live in the most productive waters in the world. We have thousands of miles of bayous and waterways that serve as home to the Brown Pelican and to the people themselves.”
“It has been a long, steady climb back,” Strickland said. “We are very, very happy to declare the Brown Pelican healthy and recovered. We have proven that with protection and conservation, we can bring a species like the pelican back from the brink of extinction.”
But Strickland and Landrieu both said the fight for the survival of the Brown Pelican doesn’t end with its removal from the Endangered Species list. “History also teaches us that we must be vigilant,” Strickland said. “We’re going to continue to monitor the pelican and its environment to ensure we never again see this beautiful bird pushed to the verge of extinction.”
“We celebrate the saving of the pelican, but we have a challenge before us to protect the environment the pelican lives in,” Landrieu said.
“You don’t get to a point of taking a species off the list without a lot of hard work, and tremendous work has gone on the last few decades,” Hamilton said. “This is a species that is so much ingrained in the fabric of America. People know pelicans and they know what this means not only to Louisiana but across the United States.”
To continue protection of the Brown Pelican, the senator said the Administration of President Barack Obama has made Louisiana’s coastal restoration a priority. In fact, Landrieu, Strickland and Hamilton toured Louisiana’s coastline only hours before the press conference to announce the pelican’s removal from the Endangered Species list.
“This Administration and the Department of the Interior have been extraordinary in their number of visits to our state, to walk on our coast,” Landrieu said. “They could have chosen any place to make this announcement, but they picked Louisiana for any number of reasons – not just because this bird is our state bird but because the work that has gone on here is so extraordinary. They chose St. Tammany Parish. They chose this national wildlife refuge. The Department of the Interior is well invested in the state of Louisiana, and we are well connected in this challenge before us.”
“We will make sure this species continues to be protected and in good shape for years to come,” Hamilton said. “It’s a great day for conservation and it’s a great day for America.” “Today,” Landrieu said, “we welcome our brown pelicans back.”