ZooNooz Article - MARCH 2008

Cyril's surprise

David Harris reports on another – very surprising – first
for Taronga Zoo. Photographs Robert Dockerill

On September 13, 1978, a badly
injured Australian Pelican was
brought to Taronga Zoo by a member
of the public. A nasty accident had led to the loss of most of its left
wing. The zoo records of the time were not as detailed as they are today, but it is thought the bird might have clipped a high voltage power line while it was fishing.

Normally, injured animals brought to Taronga in this way are fed and medicated in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre until they are strong enough to look after themselves. They are then returned to the wild, usually close to where they were found. But this bird had been too badly damaged to ever fly again and there was no way it would survive outside of captivity. And so the pelican, now known as Cyril, became part of Taronga’s permanent collection, where it remains to this day.

An Australian Pelican living in the wild has a likely lifespan of between 10 and 25 years. No-one knows how old Cyril was when he arrived at Taronga but by September this year he will have been in residence for 30 years. That’s pretty good going but it isn’t a record. The oldest known captive pelican died at the grand old age of 54. However, with Cyril’s outlook on life, this pelican could break all the records.

You see, for Cyril, 25 is the new 5. By five years of age most pelicans are sexually mature and ready to lay eggs. But Cyril waited until October 2, 2003, when he was at least 25, to shock everyone by laying his first egg. At last he was ready to tell the world he should have been named Sybil not Cyril.

Just in case anyone missed the point or thought they’d been mistaken, Cyril laid another egg in July 2004, one more in August and yet another in July 2006. But none of these eggs was fertile. Cyril was saving the big moment until October 2007.

On October 11, this 30- something Australian Pelican 10 hatched a young chick, the first known to have been hatched at Taronga Zoo. At three months of age the young pelican was almost as big as its mother and weighed seven kilograms. For a seven-kilo pelican hatched at the end of '07, one name
was an obvious choice. So they called him Kevin.

You’ll remember that Cyril has a badly damaged left wing, so it’s an interesting coincidence that when Kevin was born, his right wing was bent backwards and looked as if it was deformed, possibly due to a calcium deficiency. The wing was treated by Taronga’s vets who managed to save most of it, but unfortunately the tip had to be amputated. When you're visiting the pelican enclosure you’ll be able to recognise Cyril as the pelican leaning slightly to the right while Kevin leans slightly to the left.

Australian Pelicans normally mate inland and in vast groups. Each female is courted by up to eight males, who chase after her on land and in the air until one triumphs. After an egg is laid, the female nurtures it between her webbed feet, because unlike other birds, the pelican has no brood patch. A few weeks after they have hatched, the hundreds of young birds group together in what is known as a pod or creche. Parents return to the creche each day, singling out their own young for feeding. Their main diet is fish though wild pelicans have been known to eat crustaceans, reptiles and even, very occasionally, small dogs. Fish are eaten head first to avoid spiking and Taronga’s pelicans consume around 10% of their body weight each day. That amounts to about 6 kg of Red-spot Whiting for the five birds in the Wetlands exhibit.

Given the collective nature of pelican breeding it isn’t surprising that captive birds like Cyril tend not to mate. What nobody really knows is what circumstances caused her to start mating now. Keeper Tim Grul suggests that the long Sydney drought may have simulated the dry inland conditions normally associated with mating preparations. My unscientific theory is that after years of dreaming of the mass courtship she’d hoped for, the arrival in her enclosure of two males in 1990, made Cyril realise that this was as good as it was likely to get, so she began laying eggs to give the males the idea.

Whatever the real reason, Cyril has every reason to be proud of her thriving offspring, Kevin, the first Australian Pelican born at Taronga. The question on everyone else’s mind is: could it happen again?

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