Pelican-Duckling nightmare - Part 2

Following my previous post where I showed White Pelicans terrorizing a Muscovy Duck family, I have photos from another encounter which took place in the same lake a couple of days later. 

By this time, I'd discovered there were at least two mother Muscovy Ducks with around ten ducklings apiece. One afternoon, I found one of these families on the side of the lake furthest from the pelicans. As I tried to count the ducklings, a solitary pelican made a beeline towards us from the other side of the lake.

I saw the pelican coming and said out loud, "You better be a good pelican!"

Then this happened. 

It's hard to see, but there is a dark brown duckling just in front of the pelican's bill.

 

Here's a better look at it: 

Noooo!

 

I kept talking to the pelican, telling it to Stop it! and Bad pelican!

Like the previous incident, the pelican held the duckling in the end of its bill and toyed with it, but never tossed it back down its throat. 

The pelican seemed to be aware that I was watching it and that I didn't like what it was doing. It kept looking at me, whereas the pelicans that previously tormented the duckling never paid any attention to the people screaming on the sidelines.

The giant pelican followed the tiny duckling around. I almost thought maybe this was a friendly act, but the screaming of the duckling assured me it was terrified. 

The pelican kind of creeped me out with the way it kept looking at me.  

 

What does it want?

Although the pelican did not appear to be aggressive or menacing, the experience was just too much for the tiny duckling.

I mean, I would be screaming and trying to escape this scenario as well.

The pelican was definitely interested in the duckling, staying close on its tail as the poor little guy tried to swim away.

At this point, I was wondering if the pelican was just doing this to see what I would do about it. 

As before, there came a point when the pelican decided to just stop what it was doing and move away. The duckling was left to find its way back to its mom who had fled the scene as soon as it started.

I felt bad for the little guy and tried to point it in the direction of its mother. By this time, a couple of other people had also noticed what was happening and made attempts to reunite the family. The duckling took shelter in a clump of vegetation. 

I found the behavior of the pelicans really fascinating and asked other people in the area if they'd ever seen them go after ducks before. No one I spoke to had observed this previously, and I'm still trying to find answers. 

 

I spent nearly a month at this lake and when I arrived, there were about 300 pelicans. By the time I had to leave, their number had dwindled to 20-30. A few days later, the pelicans had all migrated north, leaving the ducks to swim freely in their lake.