The mascot of the Walsrode bird park in the German state of Lower Saxony is an impressive animal, with black and white feathers punctuated by a powerful bright yellow beak. But lately the toucan has been forced to share the spotlight with a decidedly less glamorous cohort. With his dark plumage and tiny red bald head, Sherlock, a turkey vulture, is the new star of the zoo.
The unlikely celebrity gained his fame after police in Lower Saxony made him and two other turkey vultures the center of an experiment in search and rescue. With their penchant for locating carrion, police thought the scavengers could also aid in locating human bodies. Not only can turkey vultures detect a dead mouse from more than 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) away, but they have a major advantage over sniffer dogs -- they can fly, removing the challenge of difficult terrain.
"We're not able to keep up with them on the ground," says police commissioner Rainer Herrmann from the State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA) in Hanover. Herrmann is actually responsible for forensics work, but his fellow officers have regarded him as a bird expert ever since he created a database for rare parrots. He plans to outfit Sherlock and the other vultures with tracking devices so they can be followed by police cruisers.
The scheme captivated both the media and police departments from around the country, with between 30 and 40 requests for the birds' services, Herrmann said. The market for such an idea certainly exists -- each month the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) receives several thousand missing persons reports.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,770994,00.html
