Sunday, March 16, 2025

Dogs go hunting pelicans in Baja California Sur

Dogs chasing pelicans and Múlege’s elephant seal were topics of interest on social media this week in Baja California Sur.

In the port town of Pichilingue, four dogs were captured on video hunting pelicans on Thursday. Evident from the video is that the pelican was already injured, as it didn’t fly away from its attackers even as they got close and started to circle it in the water.

Whether the dogs were hot in the 30-degree heat, hungry or just bored, they did seem to understand that the pelican was defenseless and that this moment in the video was their best chance to capture it.

The one-and-half minute video shows the four dogs swimming out from the shore toward the pelican as it tries without success to swim away. The dogs finally corral the bird until the four canine hunters surround and attack it.

The video ends there and so does the story.

Also back in the news was the elephant seal that has been spotted several times in the last few months along the coast of the Gulf of California on the eastern side of the Baja California peninsula. This time it was a siting of the more than two-meter animal swimming near the river entrance at Múlege that connects to the gulf waters.

The animal seems to have little fear of humans and has been seen sunning itself on the beach next to groups of families and making other appearances to tourists along the coast. It’s believed that the possible effects of climate change, a search for food, or a mishap along its migration route has caused the female to be so far from the U.S. and Canadian shores where northern elephant seals are usually found. It has become a bit of a local celebrity, popping up on El Coyote and other local beaches to the shock and awe of beachgoers.

This latest video, uploaded by the same Twitter user as the pelican-hunting dogs, shows this massive creature content as can be while floating up the Múlege river. While wildlife is a common site in the bio-rich Baja Peninsula, up close and personal encounters are always a particular thrill, especially for first-time visitors to this popular tourist destination.

With reports from El Sud Californiano

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