hey tweets,

i am baaaack! and here is more birdie stuff that i thought you'd be
interested to read about ....

regards,

Devorah A. N. Bennu, PhD
Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Ornithology
The American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at West 79th Street
New York, NY 10024-5192
212.313.7784 (office) 212.313.6962 or 212.313.7773 (lab)
email:nyneve at amnh.org or nyneve at myuwnet.washington.edu
work page http://research.amnh.org/ornithology/personnel/bennu.htm
personal pages http://research.amnh.org/users/nyneve/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
CRESTED IBIS -- Back from the Brink of Extinction

By KENJI HALL
Associated Press Writer

TOKYO (AP) -- After a comeback from the brink of extinction,
Japan's crested ibis is being prepared to be reintroduced into the
wild in four years, an official said Saturday.

The bird -- with its snowy, pink-tinged feathers, red face and
sloping black beak -- was once a common sight in rice paddy fields
all over the country and a favorite of scroll painters. But by the
late 1990s, there was only one known survivor at the Sado Crested
Ibis Preservation Center on Sado Island in northern Japan.

Now numbering 25, the ibises may be turned loose on the secluded
island in the Sea of Japan as early as 2007, after they have
learned to build nests and hunt for themselves, said spokeswoman
Hiroko Nakagawa.

By then, researchers aim to breed about 100 birds, the Asahi, a
major newspaper, reported Saturday.

The Environment Ministry is considering plans to begin building a
larger aviary that closely replicates the bird's natural habitat
sometime in 2004, the daily said.

Less than five years ago, Japan had just one sterile, elderly female
ibis named Kin.

A government program in the 1980s to save the ibis by breeding the
last five birds known to exist in Japan had failed. Although 140
ibises lived on a preserve in China, the bird -- known by its
scientific name Nipponia nippon -- appeared to be headed for
extinction here.

Then, in 1999, Chinese President Jiang Zemin donated Yang-Yang and
You-You, an ibis couple, to Japanese Emperor Akihito, and months
later the two had their first chick. The birds have since had 21
more offspring. Kin, too, remains healthy at 35 -- the equivalent of
90 to 110 human years.

The crested ibis had been nearly wiped out as rapid industrial
development, rice paddy pesticides and deforestation had destroyed
its habitat and food supply.

It is one of 90 endangered species of birds in Japan and among 370
endangered animal species in the country, according to the
Environment Ministry.

At the ibis center, 300 kilometers (190 miles) northwest of Tokyo,
caretakers keep visitors away from the birds. The young are fed
horse meat, insects, and freshwater fish such as loach, and
monitored round the clock.

Nakagawa said several problems must be worked out before the birds
can be released, including whether there is enough food for them to
survive the bitter winters on their own.

Loach and other small, river-dwelling fish and animals that ibises
had lived on have largely disappeared or been tainted by pollutants
and agricultural pesticides.

"On Sado, they would have lots of uninhabited forestland to
themselves but not enough to eat," she said.

----------------------------------------