Animals doing weird things: Pelicans play catch

These pelicans are not your average 'dumb birds' and are out to prove that despite having no hands, they can catch a ball too

by: Kirsty Ross
27 August 2009

WHO said animals were supposed to behave like, well, animals?

Pelicans, Bootsmann and his pal Petry, certainly don't - and are turning the 'dumb bird' notion upside down.

In an unbelievable demonstration of playfulness, these amazing pelicans learned to play catch with a ball (which is a football-sized soft world globe).

The crafty water birds, with a distinctive pouch under the beak birds, have mastered several tricks with the ball and can even throw it back and forth to each other.

Nine-year-old owner Adrian Adam, from Hoerstel, Germany, trained his giant pets to play the game after first teaching them to catch their dinner as day-old chicks.

Pelicans normally eat fish, but they also eat amphibians, crustaceans and on some occasions, smaller birds - luckily not little boys.

When catching fish, they expand the throat pouch much in the same way they open it to catch balls.

http://www.thelondonpaper.com/thelondonpaper/weird/odd-news/animals-doing-weird-things-pelicans-play-catch