Many of you have voted in support of Mona Rutger and Back to the Wild in Animal Planet's Hero of the Year contest. The winner will be announced tomorrow night (Wed, Nov 1) at 10:00 PM on the Animal Planet network. In the public voting portion of this contest, Mona received twice the number of votes as her nearest competitor, but that only counted for 25% of the judging criteria. We do know that Wednesday's program will definitely include footage from Back to the Wild, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for Mona. The $10,000 prize money will cover almost a full month of operating expenses for BTTW and will be greatly appreciated. Some have questioned the value of wildlife rehabilitators, but in addition to caring for injured animals (which are often the result of human activities) and educating the public about wildlife and the need for habitat preservation, these facilities are also providing a wealth of scientific data that would otherwise be very difficult to obtain. Back to the Wild, along with the other rehabilitation centers, is collaborating in an ongoing study of the waterfowl and other birds of the Lake Erie bioregion to study the ecology of avian influenza viruses at the human/avian interface. Dr. Richard Slemons, an OSU veterinarian, is the primary investigator. He has worked in the southern Lake Erie region for 20 years studying and conducting surveillance of avian influenza viruses in wild birds. He has enlisted the help of rehabilitators in obtaining cloacal and oral swabs from waterfowl and raptors to determine the presence of any of the many strains avian influenza viruses (many of which cause only minor sickness or no noticeable symptoms in birds). By testing the blood of the rehabilitators, his work will also exam the wildlife/human interface and to determine whether people develop an immune response to the low pathogenic avian influenza viruses with which they come in contact but have no signs or symptoms of illness. This study could prove to be an invaluable model in further understanding the complexities of all influenza viruses and interspecies transmission of these viruses. If you have questions about these studies, please reply to me personally. Again, thanks to all of you who have supported Mona. To learn more about Back to the Wild, or to contact Mona to schedule a tour of her facility, go to <backtothewild.org> Since there is no source of public funding for rehabilitators, they are in constant need of our support. If you are searching for a meaningful gift for someone this Christmas, consider giving a donation in their name to Back to the Wild or to a center in your area. Sheryl Young Sandusky ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]