hey tweets,

help can arrive from the most unlikely places, eh? take a peek
below ...

Devorah A. N. Bennu, PhD
Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow
Molecular Systematics Laboratories
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 myUW.net
work page http://research.amnh.org/ornithology/personnel/bennu.htm
personal pages http://research.amnh.org/users/nyneve/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Toymaker in search of animal thought extinct

BY MARY ETHRIDGE
Knight Ridder Newspapers

AKRON, Ohio - (KRT) - When K&M International, a toy maker from
Twinsburg, Ohio, decided to expand its business, it turned for
inspiration to the fastest-growing hobby in America -
bird-watching.

But people there never imagined themselves as key players in the
midst of an ornithological mystery.

``It's been very exciting and satisfying,'' said Manjit Dhillon, a
marketing manager for K&M.

Bird scientists and hobbyists from across oceans are turning to K&M
for help luring the Jerdon's courser, a songbird living mainly in
remote parts of India.

The bird was believed to have been extinct for more than 70 years,
until a well-respected scientist saw one and noted it in 2000.

Several others made similar findings and noted them.

But just as quickly as the warblers had come, they disappeared
again.

The question of the sudden escape puzzled even the brightest minds
in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (the equivalent of
the National Audubon Society in America). What could they do to
preserve a bird bordering on extinction?

``The stakes of major research were hanging on finding this bird
and following it,'' said Andrew South, a spokesman for RSPB in
London.

Through word of mouth in bird-loving circles, RSPB learned about
the work of K&M and began to investigate.

The National Audubon Society first approached K&M in 2002 about
making a line of true-to-life birds.

The society had seen that a project with long-armed monkeys was a
great success for K&M, so it knew the company's capabilities.

Audubon officials helped K&M designers pick which birds to
manufacture and to get the details of them just right, from beak
length to feather color.

It was during one of these meetings that the Audubon Society
suggested that K&M consult with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in
Ithaca, N.Y.

Cornell has a massive audio library of birdsounds taped in the wild
by scientists and dating back as far as the 1950s.

K&M embedded the recordings in electronic chips and installed them
in the plush birds designed for cuddling. The chirp is activated by
a squeeze of the birds.

A tag is attached to each bird explaining its natural environment,
origin and characteristics as well as where and when the sounds
were recorded.

At the RSPB's request, K&M took the recording of a Jerdon's courser
that Cornell had in its file and rerecorded it in one of the boxes
similar to those they put inside their plush animals. The sound is
clear and true.

Armed with these chirping sound boxes from K&M, scientists hope
they'll be able to lure Jerdon's coursers out from hiding.

And if they reveal themselves, they'll find many open arms.

After all, K&M's motto is ``the hug of the wild.''

---
(c) 2004, Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio).

Visit Akron Beacon Journal Online at http://www.ohio.com.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.