brown pelican

Volunteers clean an oil-covered brown pelican found off the Louisiana coast, at the Fort Jackson Oiled Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Buras, La., on June 9. msnbc.com updated 1 hour 59 minutes ago Donations to victims of the worst oil spill in U.S. history pale in comparison to other recent disasters, a development some philanthropy experts ...

Wildlife rehablitator Shannon Grisson, left, and volunteer Heather Bryant clean oil off a brown pelican at a rescue center.

Hounded by hunters and fishermen, driven to near-extinction by chemical pollution, the brown pelican has survived a century of human abuse - only to face another challenge from the giant oil spill threatening to devastate the Gulf of Mexico marine environment.

Share + May 16, 2010 9:57 am US/Eastern ROBERT, La. 1 of 1 Heather Nevill, left, and fellow veterinarians clean an oil-covered brown pelican at the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center on May 15, 2010, in Buras, La.

After nearly 40 years of struggling for survival, the brown pelican is coming off the endangered species list.