Pelican love

A sick pelican being nursed back to health at a wildlife centre has fallen in love - with one of the staff.

The bird displays mating rituals every time Alexis Bailey enters the room, and he attacks and bites anyone who approaches when they are together.

Ms Bailey, 47, can't even take a long weekend off work, because the pelican goes off his food and pines for her.

The pink-backed pelican, named Romeo , a native to sub-Saharan Africa, was rescued by the SSPCA after he got lost and landed on a pond at Haggerston Castle Holiday Park in Berwickshire in October.

Suffering from blood poisoning and having been attacked by other wildlife, he was taken to the SSPCA's Middlebank Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit in Fife.

Ms Bailey, the first person at the unit to deal with the bird, said: "I came in, gave him his antibiotics and got him settled down for the night. He seems to have been in love with me ever since."

His owners keep a collection of wildlife on the Isle of Man and are due to collect him soon, now that he has fully recovered. Ms Bailey admitted: "It will be very difficult when he leaves."