TAMPA, Fla. – Theo, 3, isn’t really into the lake smelt being served for breakfast, so he flips his head back and spits the little fish at the woman in the rubber boots. “He’s so dramatic about it,” says Michelle Uhlig.
The palm-sized Peruvian smelt, however, he devours in a gulp. [TRENDING: 11-year-old killed in street race crash | CDC guidelines for Easter celebrations | Florida wastewater pond leak prompts evacuations] Theo’s roommate Josh, a 10-year-old rescue pelican that can no longer fly, is a bit more polite, eating whatever comes his way.
Few people who’ve spent time around a fishing dock in Florida might imagine a brown pelican as picky, but the birds at the Florida Aquarium have the luxury.