A keeper responding to shouts found a strange sight in the bushes surrounding the duck pond. A young boy, nine or ten years old, was lying on his stomach in the grass pounding his hands and feet on the ground and bawling his eyes out. On his back, wings spread for greater leverage, a large pelican was jumping up and down as if on a trampoline.
The keeper shooed the bird away and returned the scared but otherwise unharmed boy to his parents. They immediately began yelling at the keeper about how the zoo shouldn’t have dangerous animals around, and that something should be done before somebody got hurt.
The keeper, a fairly new seasonal employee, was doing his best to handle the situation, but wasn’t succeeding very well. The parents finally quieted down when several other visitors, who had witnessed the entire event, reminded them that the area the boy had been in was clearly marked “Do Not Enter,” and the parents had simply watched as he climbed past the sign and started harassing the bird. The boy had apparently chased the cornered bird in circles for several minutes before it had turned and run at him. It was only after he had tripped and fallen that the bird jumped on top of him.