Bizarre bird gets private beach in Indonesia

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A species of birds able to fly immediately after hatching from eggs buried beneath the tropical sand has just been given its own private beach in eastern Indonesia, a conservation group said Friday.

Maleos — chicken-sized birds with black helmet-like foreheads — number from 5,000 to 10,000 in the wild and can only be found on Sulawesi island. They rely on sun-baked sands or volcanically heated soil to incubate their eggs.

The U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society said it has teamed up with a local environmental group to purchase and protect a 36-acre (14-hectare) stretch of beach in northern Sulawesi that contains about 40 nests.

The environmental groups paid $12,500 for the beach-front property on remote Sulawesi, one of Indonesia's 17,000 islands, to help preserve the threatened species.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hZ6Y-8YumtIfEu7q_QPctpURpvtgD986HI1G1

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This makes my heart smile.

[pkdu]

1. Here's the pic....thanks for posting the article

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/media/ALeqM5gEKjqx2cIRaoUFfqdVIbb7Sq4MIg

[bitchkitty]

4. it looks like a chicken, but more elegant.

A metro chicken!

[snowdays]

7. certainly not a farmed chicken who are now breed with breasts so

big that many can not walk.

[X_Digger]

2. $12k for 36 acres?

I know where I want to retire. I'll take care of the birds, too :)

[bitchkitty]

3. I know, right?

I used to live in Indonesia, over 40 years ago so I suspect it's changed, but I remember the breathtaking beaches of Pali Buan Ratu (sic).

If property is that cheap, I've got enough for a little patch of beach and a nice little shack!

Hmmmm - think they have broadband? :)

[X_Digger]

5. For those prices on those beaches..

I'd take telegraph access.

[izquierdista]

6. Satellite

With the right dish, you wouldn't have to give up your Internet. :-)