Ben Cropp: Plight Of The Pelican

Documentary 52 minutes ~ Color

At Lake Tinaroo, west of Cairns, 150 pelicans and 3,000 cormorants swim and feed together. The pelicans dip their great beaks and scoop up the fish in the shallows, while the cormorants nimbly dive down and catch their food underwater. The two bird species are friends. They roost together by night and fish together by day.

Unknowingly they feed on polluted fish laced with heavy metals that will cause their eggs to be thin-shelled when they return to the nesting site. Slowly their progeny decrease. This is the plight of the pelican.

Join Ben Cropp as he explores different breeding grounds of the pelicans such as the barren islands where they lay their eggs, to the rivers where many predators such as crocodiles and eagles prey on the young chicks. This film attempts to track the life of flocks of pelicans through an entire cycle of seasons.

Stars: Ben Cropp