Melville Fire Dept. conducts water rescue to save injured pelican
An injured pelican is recovering in Regina after it was rescued by the Melville Fire Department.
Resident Tracy Kerestesh was out walking her dogs when she spotted something walking on the frozen reservoir. A pelican was limping along the frozen body of water looking for food.
“Pelicans have flown south at least two weeks ago there is no open water, there is no food,” Kerestesh said.
Kerestesh called a friend, Norm Konechny, the deputy fire chief in the area.
“I said I would go home and get a crate by the time I went home and got the crate and came back out here he already had rescue out here, (and) the men were gearing up to go on the ice,” she said.
Konechny has been a part of the Melville Fire Department for more than 50 years and has never had the experience of saving a pelican.
“This is a new one,” Konechny said. “We have rescued a parakeet and canaries out of trees, cats, and a human out of a tree who got trapped. All these other things so this was a new one.”
Konechny knew the fire department had the resources available to do an ice rescue so he called his crew who stepped up to the task. Safety protocol for water rescues was followed.
The bird was then immediately transferred to the Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Regina where he is resting.
Megan Lawrence is the director of rehabilitation at the centre and has been monitoring the pelican.
“He comes out of his enclosure and he’s on strict cage rest right now but he comes out a couple times a day to stretch his wings and feed him,” Lawrence said. “He interacts with the other pelican we have in care and they get along quite well.”
In the next 10 to14 days Lawrence hopes the bird will be healthy enough to transport to a facility in Manitoba where it will spend its winter rehabbing in a pool before being released back into the wild in the spring.
“I think everyone felt good to help something that was in trouble,” Kerestesh said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Alice Munro, Nobel literature winner revered as short story master, dead at 92
Nobel laureate Alice Munro, the Canadian literary giant who became one of the world's most esteemed contemporary authors and one of history's most honoured short story writers, has died at age 92.
Latest updates on air quality alerts, and when the smoke may reach Ontario and Quebec
Wildfires have led Environment Canada to issue air quality advisories for parts of B.C., Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as forecasters warn the smoke could drift farther east.
Are these Canada's best restaurants? Annual top 100 list revealed
The annual list of Canada's top restaurants in the country was just released and here are the places that made the 2024 cut.
Attack on prison van in France kills 2 officers, inmate escapes
Armed assailants killed two French prison officers and seriously wounded three others in an attack on a convoy in Normandy on Tuesday and an inmate escaped, officials said.
Maximum payout for LifeLabs class-action drops from $150 estimate to $7.86
Canadian LifeLabs customers who filed an application for a class-action settlement began receiving their payments this week, though at a much lower amount than initially expected.
Steal a car, lose your driver's licence for 10 years under new Ontario proposal
Repeat car thieves may face lengthy licence bans under proposed changes to Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
$1.6B parts plant for Honda electric vehicle batteries coming to Niagara Region
A Japanese company has announced it will build an approximately $1.6-billion plant in Ontario's Niagara Region that will make a key electric vehicle battery component as part of Honda's supply chain in the province.
B.C. brings in law on name changes on day that child killer's new identity revealed
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Manitoba premier to visit areas impacted by wildfire
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew will get a close-up look at the devastation from a large wildfire burning in northern Manitoba Tuesday.