Pelé, the Pelican came out of the Taronga Zoo Wildlife hospital on Tuesday August 18 and was released back to his home fishing grounds, Narrabeen Lagoon. The young people and parents and grandparents who had helped rescue him gathered to welcome him home and watch him return to the water.
Pelé had spent around a month at the Sydney Taronga Wildlife Hospital after the above youngsters and their parents and one grandmother helped rescue him, with the help of Sydney Wildlife volunteers Jacqui Marlowe and Joseph and Eira Battaglia.
See report from earlier this month: Pelé the Pelican – discarded Fish hooks and Lines caused this local Narrabeen Lagoon Seabird to ask for help: rescued by community members + Sydney Wildlife - Turtle + Penguin also in care due to fishing tackle - please don't leave your hooks and lines where wildlife lives
Taronga’s two Wildlife Hospitals, at Taronga Zoo Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo, are responsible for maintaining the health of close to 1,500 wildlife cases every year, and are the largest provider of wildlife veterinary services in NSW.
They conduct around 200 surgeries per month, have helped save 7 native species form extinction, and have released over 50,000 animals back into the wild.
The aim of the Wildlife Hospitals is to rehabilitate as many native animals as possible for release back to the wild. The variety of animals treated is enormous, ranging from stranded seals and orphaned baby bats, to pelicans tangled in fishing line. All these animals need professional care and attention during the treatment and rehabilitation process to ensure they can be returned to their natural environment.
When an animal is brought to one of the two hospitals, the encounter details are recorded to ensure the animal is returned to its habitat. Whenever possible the rescuer is involved in the eventual release of the animal.
The expertise of the Taronga team, comprising of Veterinarians, Vet Nurses, Veterinary Pathologists and Zoo Nutritionists, have decades of experience, allowing the Taronga Wildlife Hospitals to deliver first-class care to a wide range of Australian and exotic animals.
Teams also support priority species recovery programs and provide inter-agency support to state and federal government departments. Taronga’s unique expertise allows them to play an important role in biosecurity, conservation interventions, and animal welfare globally. Taronga continues to assist state and federal enforcement agencies in assessing and caring for confiscated animals.
While capital works like the new $40.7 million Taronga Wildlife Hospital received major NSW Government infrastructure grants, day-to-day operational costs—including animal food, medications, and surgeries—rely heavily on public fundraising, corporate sponsorships, and philanthropic donations rather than recurring government operational allowances.
Libby Hall, Manager at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, who has been working in this area for forty years and credits the young children who helped rescue Pelé as those who saved him, shared insights into his treatment.
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Libby Hall, Manager at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital, with Pelé's rescuers
How much surgery did Pelé require?
He had three different anaesthetics. So he had his intake, which is his initial exam. And then we did our bird flu testing then. So he had to wait for that to come back. And then he had an anaesthetic and blood taken. And then we did two surgeries. So two surgeries to remove the hooks; the first one and then the second one to remove all the small pieces that were in the joint. And then the rehabilitation period, which has been quite long because he's been in for a month. He wasn't using his leg at all, it was very sore. So a lot of pain relief, antibiotics and treatment required to get him ready to come back to the wild.
The hook disintegrated?
One of them. He had several hooks. The external ones were easy to get out, but there was an older one, in the joint as well. The small pieces of it were disintegrating. It was a nasty thing.
What's his course of rehabilitation been?
His rehabilitation means he had to have full motion in that joint and be eating well. And he needed to have quite a lot of medication as well. So we needed to make sure he had his anti-inflammatories, his antibiotics, and taking those on a regular basis to enable him to heal so there was no infection.
Then he also needed to regain full movement. So swimming physio was the main thing that we did with him because we didn't want him walking on it because he couldn't wait there. It was very, very sore.
He couldn't wait there at all when he came in. And then we needed to feed him because he was quite a little bit underweight when he first came. Feed him up and then get him ready to come back into the wild. So, it was a bit of a process.
How much fish was Pelé eating a day?
He was eating about 20 red spot whiting a day.
How is the wildlife hospital funded?
The hospital is supported through donations from different organisations and individuals and every day gate takings. In other words, people coming into the zoo, that's where we get the money from, and also individual people who donate to the hospital.
How many animals are you treating and is that higher capacity in Spring?
We get about a thousand a year and the busiest time is Spring and Summer. Summer is very busy.
What species come in?
The majority are birds, but we get everything from tiny frogs right through to seals and everything in between. Lots of echidnas and many other animals. A lot of marine turtles.
Taronga Wildlife Hospital receives approx. 40 endangered marine turtles each year that are found injured, sick or stranded on land. The species most commonly received are Green Turtles, Loggerhead and Hawksbill turtles. Many of these turtles are suffering from the effects of marine debris, plastic ingestion and entanglement in fishing line, hooks and netting. These turtles receive intense veterinary attention including full diagnostic testing often including CT scans. In many cases the turtles are in care for many months regaining full condition and strength before being identified with tags and microchips and released at sea with the assistance of the Sydney Harbour Water Police.
The Taronga Wildlife Hospital in Sydney also treats and rehabilitates over 20 Little Penguins annually. The majority of these originate from the Manly Little Penguin colony, which is listed as an endangered population under the Threated Species Conservation Act. The Wildlife Hospital works in close collaboration with the Office of Environment and Heritage to protect these penguins, which have become a Sydney icon and are the last remaining mainland colony of penguins in New South Wales. Staff at the hospital have continued involvement with the Citizen Science based Project Penguin, threatened species fund raising events and beach clean ups in collaboration with the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
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Joseph and Eira Battaglia, Manly Volunteer Penguin Wardens
Discarded fishing lines, hooks, lures, what can we do about their impacts on local wildlife?
It's really important that we dispose of these responsibly. There's what's called tangler bins in most areas now and we need to get as many as we can, but just a normal garbage bin will do. So people just to be really responsible and make sure that they pick up everything that they've brought down. All their lines and hooks, anything that's become tangled, pick it up and dispose of it responsibly.
Taronga’s Wild Futures Program
In 2019, Taronga undertook its largest capital fundraising to date with the aim to fund the building of two new wildlife specialist teaching hospitals and a new amphibian and reptile conservation centre.
These modern facilities provide urgently needed space for the increasing demand on Taronga services for treatment, surgeries, rehabilitation and quarantine whilst enabling widespread training and upskilling for wildlife carers, students and veterinary practitioners across the country.
They are home to the thousands of sick and injured animals seen by Taronga each year.
With your support, Taronga can continue to undertake this vital work.
To support Taronga’s vet teams and life-saving hospital work, please donate today.
Visit: www.taronga.org.au/get-involved/philanthropy/wild-futures
If you find sick or injured wildlife, please call:
- Sydney Wildlife Rescue - 24/7: 9413 4300
- WIRES: 1300 094 737
Take your fishing tackle refuse home or bin it
Currently 12 tackle bins are located in popular fishing locations across the Northern Beaches to raise awareness to do the right thing and encourage people to dispose of unwanted tackle, hooks, lures, sinkers, swivels, and rinsed bait packaging.
Council collects material from the fishing tackle bin at Narrabeen Lagoon every Monday and 3 times a week in the warmer months, while the public litterbins, located nearby, are collected daily.
In addition, Council’s Cleansing Services team visits this popular fishing locations daily to remove loose litter and check for any discarded fishing lines and tackle as well.
In regard to signage, the tackle bins themselves have information about responsible fishing behaviour.’’
location of the council's fish tackle bins
what they look like. Photo and above graphic: NBC
Locations
- Fishermans Beach
- Sangrado Jetty, Seaforth
- Manly Dam (sections 1 & 3)
- Little Manly Point Park
- Narrabeen Lagoon Bridge area
- Pelican Path at Lake Park Road, North Narrabeen
- Ellery’s Punt Reserve, Clontarf
- Newport Jetty
- Berry Reserve, Narrabeen
- West Esplanade, Manly
- Forty Baskets Jetty
Thank you very VERY Much
The crew from Sydney Wildlife would like to thank Fiona Dimas-Herd, Anne Olbach and her grandchildren, Eduardo Salgado and his son, Lucas Caetano Salgado, and Avian & Exotics Vet Narrabeen, for their coming together to rescue Pele.
Please – when disposing of your fishing line and hooks make sure you do so so it won’t hurt others; take it home with you or put it in one of the fishing tackle bins the council has installed. If you get it caught in the trees around the perimeter of the lagoon, please have some scissors or something with you to cut it out again.
Let's all look after this place a bit better, especially its furred, feathered and finned residents - together we are a great team - the best team; community.
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Libby Hall with Sydney Wildlife volunteers Eira Battaglia and Jacqui Marlowe
Some photos of Pelé's release, before he winged south across the Lagoon, heading to the 'lake' side of the bridge:
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stretching his wings:
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Libby walks with Pelé as he adjusts to being home, still stretching his wings:
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He heads towards the water, still stretching his wings:
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Into the water he goes:
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Into the sky he goes;
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On his way towards the bridge at Narrabeen - take care Pelé !:
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