Great White Pelican

Great White Pelican
モモイロペリカン
Character Data
AKA		Eastern White Pelican, Rosy Pelican, or White Pelican
Romaji		Momoiroperikan
Debut		Kemono Friends Pavilion
Animal Data
Scientific Name		Pelecanus onocrotalus
Distribution		Southwestern Africa
Diet		Piscivore
Avg. Lifespan		30-40 years
Read More		Great White Pelican
Conservation

Great White Pelican​

Pavilion​

Stage Play

“Greetings. This me who fly lazily towards warm place when its become cold; please take care of me. I like swimming. Noisily~, woosh, swoosh~, splash, like that. Also I often being called weird but when I'm hungry, I bite the head of the kid who sits beside me ("bite") Ah... ... nice to meet you”
—Great White Pelican's introduction

Great White Pelican is a type of Bird Friend introduced in the Second Collaboration with Sunshine Aquarium. She has since been featured in Kemono Friends Pavilion.

Appearance

Great White Pelican has almost-white pink hair, cut straight in the front and below her shoulders in the back. Attached to her head are a pair of wings, the lower half of which are black with some blue above them. The hair above her forehead has some yellow on it. Tied up with a pink ribbon with a blue bead on it is yellow, blue, and orange hair. Her eyes are brown. She wears a large white sweater with a white collar and a small yellow patch on the chest. Her tailfeathers which reach the back of her knees are a pale pink. She wears yellow thigh highs with pink open top shoes.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role

In Real Life

Great white pelican, Lake Ziway, Ethiopia. Photo by Charles J. Sharp, 2017.

The Great White Pelican is a migratory bird native to much of Africa, India, Western Asia and Eastern Europe. They're large birds, around 140-180cm in length and have a wingspan of around 220-360 cm, the second longest of any extant flying animal. They have huge yellow bills, up to 45cm long. Females are significantly smaller than males and less bulky. Their plumage is almost entirely white with a slight pink tinge, a yellow base to the neck and black flight feathers. They may look clumsy or awkward on land or takeoff but they are elegant fliers.

The Great White Pelican lives in shallow, warm fresh water. They may travel up to 100 kilometers a day to search for food. They often travel and feed in groups in circle formations to prevent any fish from escaping. They feed by using their lower bill as a scoop, then contracting it to blow out the water but keep the fish inside. Their lower bill forms a pouch that can store around 14 liters of water. Aside from fish, they may also try to steal another birds food, eat chicks of larger birds or even small adult birds such as pigeons or seagulls.

Great White Pelicans are very social birds, living in large flocks and breeding colonies exceeding multiple ten thousand birds. Despite their social life, they're rather quiet birds, only ocassionally making a few sounds. In spring, they travel from the south northwards to their breeding colonies, where they build their nests and raise their young together. They form monogamous bonds lasting a lifetime. A few populations within Africa also breed year round and do not migrate. Females lay 1-4 eggs which hatch after around a month. The young have a dark, brown plumage and fledge after another 2 months. Juveniles are still brown until they reach maturity at 4 years of age.

Great White Pelicans deter predators with their large size and colonies. Still, eagles and other birds of prey may attack their chicks and fledglings. Large mammals such as lions and jackals may take an oppoturnity to attack an adult and nile crocodiles may ambush them.