Pellicans are sea birds mentioned only once and not seen in the game Dragons: Titan Uprising.
Description[]
Pelicans are large sea birds of the family Pelecanidae. There are eight living species of pelicans that are found on every continent except for Antarctica. Pelicans first evolved around 30 million years ago, with the oldest known pelican dating back to the Early Oligocene epoch (33.9-28.1 million years ago) in southeast France. All pelicans are primarily piscivorous, meaning that they mainly eat fish, although they are known to also occasionally consume other prey, such as other birds, amphibians, turtles, crustaceans, insects, and even small mammals.
Pelicans are easily identifiable birds due to their long beaks and the large throat pouch, known as a gular pouch, on their necks. These pouches serve to help the pelican catch and hold their prey and to drain water out of their mouths before swallowing them. To catch their prey, pelicans will either swim on top of the water and dip their pouches into it, trapping fish inside of them, or plunge-dive into the water with their pouches open from high in the air, trapping fish inside of their pouches once they reach the water. Pelicans nest in large colonies where they gather together to help raise their young.
Function[]
Pelicans are only mentioned in passing in the Franchise, with their supposed behavior of "rending their own breast" to feed their young being used as a comparison to the close-nit pack behavior of certain dragon species, such as Dramillions.
In reality, pelicans and other sea birds have been hunted for food and feathers for decoration. Pelicans have also served as symbols in some cultures, with old Europeans seeing pelicans as a symbol of self-sacrifice due to the inaccurate belief that a mother pelican would cut open her breast with her beak and feed her young with her own blood if suitable food wasn't available. It was also said that a mother pelican could resurrect her deceased offspring in the same manner. Pelicans still serve as symbols in the modern era, with one species, the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), being the state bird of the U.S. state of Louisiana.
Appearances[]
Games[]
Dragons: Titan Uprising[]
| “ | Like a pelican rending its own breast to feed its young, Ormsliki gives her flame to the smaller ones, that they may fight in her place. [src] | ” |
| — Ormsliki's description in Dragons: Titan Uprising |
Pelicans are mentioned in the description of the Dramillion Ormsliki in the game.
