Former Ignite Vocalist Rescues Pelicans on the Evening News

Zoli Téglás has a lot of really impressive credits to his name. He was the frontman of Orange County-based melodic hardcore legends Ignite for 25 years. He was the lead vocalist of Pennywise briefly from 2010-2012 when Jim Lindberg left, appearing on one album called All or Nothing, which is weird because Pennywise is not one of those bands that has gone through a ton of lead singers. He even spent two-months doing fill-in vocals for The Misfits back in 2000 after Michael Graves left the band. But one of his other passions is rescuing pelicans. Yes, you read that correctly.

A recent segment on CBS Evening News focused on volunteers rescuing starving pelicans in California whose food source is being disrupted by shifting weather conditions. The first person seen in the video just happens to be Zoli Téglás, who describes himself as “like the ambulance, the first-line EMT.” His job is to capture the weakest, hungriest birds he can find and transport them to the Wetlands and Wildlife Center to be treated. Unfortunately, the Wetlands and Wildlife Center is overcrowded, housing a lot more birds than they are really set up to accommodate, but they do their best to treat all of the birds that are delivered to them.

This isn’t new for Téglás, as he has been rescuing pelicans for a long time now. Even an article about him from 2010 identifies him as a pelican rescuer. He’s also long been involved with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, whose website states that their mission is to protect “endangered marine wildlife by mobilizing ships, captains, and crews in their defense throughout the most fragile ecosystems on earth.” In 2010, he was involved with a Sea Shepherd investigation to uncover a restaurant in Santa Monica called Hump which was secretly serving special customers a type of sushi made from endangered sei whales, which are illegal to serve as food.

You can check out Téglás’ appearance on CBS below. The segment begins at the 16:10 mark.