Great White Pelican
Pelecanus onocrotalus

Great White Pelicans breed in Africa and Europe, apparently forming two different populations. However, many aspects of their biology and movements are unknown. This distribution map is a good example of this. Many of their annual breeding sites are not shown in the map, for instance the southern African sites in St Lucia (KZN) and Namibia (Walvis Bay and Hardap Dam). Great White Pelicans breed annually in three sites in southern Africa: Dassen Island and St Lucia in South Africa, and Bird Rock guano platform rock in Walvis Bay, Namibia.

There are many questions still unresolved about Great White Pelicans in Africa. This project intends to explore them, providing scientific evidence to assess management decisions regarding the southern African pelican populations.

We will study diverse aspects like population dynamics, interactions with other species (including predation of chicks), diet and feeding ecology, microbiology, population genetics, migratory movements and dispersal. The methods and technology involved in this project, as well as the possibilities for collaboration, are described in the different pages hosted on this website.

If you want to participate in our pelican resighting program, please fill in this form or email Marta de Ponte at the ADU.