12 July: How do Pelicans Eat? : Cool things I learnt today

I went to the zoo last year and saw a pelican.

It then gave me the burning question of how exactly do they eat?

We know they fly down and then scoop the fish up with their huge beaks. ( a bit like my dad when we leave a bowl of crisps out)

Here is the question though, Where does all that water go?

Is the pouch perforated ( full of holes live a sieve) ? Do they actually swallow all of that water?

Either way I needed to know; it felt like the fate of this word depended on it ( obviously now I can see I was being slightly dramatic)

Luckily there was a zookeeper there trying to chase the pelican back into its enclosure. Of course I asked her ( as if she wasn't busy enough)

She explained that the pelicans use their tongues to push the water out of their beak. Pelicans can expel over 10L of water🤯

It turns out this is also their version of sweating to cool their body.

Considering they weigh on average 2-15 kgs and they can scoop almost their entire weight in water. How on earth do they make it airborne?

I was expecting some miraculous use of physics!

It turns out they don't fly with a full pouch, they spit the water beforehand. ( it, seems obvious now)

Anyway, that's everything you need to know about how a pelican eats