{"id":405959,"date":"2026-02-03T17:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/405959\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:24:07","slug":"dalmatian-pelican-could-be-reintroduced-to-british-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/405959\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalmatian pelican could be reintroduced to British wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Dalmatian pelican is one of Europe&#8217;s largest flying birds with a wingspan of up to three metres (9ft 8in).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are thought to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rewildingbritain.org.uk\/why-rewild\/reintroductions-key-species\/key-species\/dalmatian-pelican\" class=\"ssrcss-6mgqu7-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">about 10,000-20,000 of them, external<\/a> left in the world, with the largest colony at Lake Mikri Prespa in Greece.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The bird was wiped out in Britain due to a combination of wetland drainage and human disturbance, with Macdonald adding they were considered a &#8220;very good source of food&#8221; by our ancestors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to fossil records, they were very common in Somerset, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In order to thrive, they depend on networks of healthy, connected wetlands, abundant fish stocks and suitable nesting areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dalmatian pelican is one of Europe&#8217;s largest flying birds with a wingspan of up to three metres&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-405959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}