Lake's Goldfish Invasion Comes to Unexpected End

Biologists worried about a goldfish infestation at a Colorado lake discovered a bunch of well-fed pelicans where the problem used to be. Colorado Parks and Wildlife personnel went to Boulder's 12-acre Teller Lake No. 5 this week for a fish survey and found just four live goldfish and a few regurgitated ones where there had once been up to 4,000, the Daily Camera reports. The rest had apparently been gobbled by pelicans: While the team was at the lake, they witnessed one of the birds swoop in for a mouthful of goldfish, Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill tells CBS Denver.

Officials had been considering draining the lake or zapping it with electricity to get rid of the invasive species, believed to have overrun the lake after a few were dumped there. But now, "we don't need to do anything," Churchill tells the Camera. "Isn't it fantastic? It has totally happened naturally." The birds probably spotted the brightly colored fish from the air and swooped in for a feast, she says, adding that "we haven't ever really experienced this before, so this might be a nice, environmentally sound solution" to similar problems elsewhere. (But pelicans won't be able to help with the invasive Asian crickets that might be sharing your house.)