Two brightly colored greenish-yellow birds have joined the African Savanna exhibit at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point�s Natural History Museum thanks to a staff member who received them as a gift from her home country.

Carmen Luque, a native of Castilleja del Campo, Sevilla, Spain, a teacher�s aide at the University Child Learning and Care Center, donated the European bee-eaters to the museum. Curator Ed Marks added them to the Savanna exhibit because the birds are widespread throughout Europe and Africa. Luque says a friend sent the mounted specimens to her as a reminder of her home in Spain where thousands of the slim and graceful birds spend the spring and summer.

Bee-eaters do not build nests, but rather make their homes by excavating holes in hillocks of damp clay. In order to kill and eat their prey, the birds hold venomous insects by the tip of the insect�s abdomen then rub the insect against a branch until the venom is discharged and it can be swallowed.

Castilleja del Campo is located in southwestern Spain near the Portuguese border. Luque, who is married to foreign language professor Richard Barker, has lived in the United States for nearly 20 years, 13 of them in Stevens Point.

An Egyptian goose, mounted at no cost by Randy Mayes of Mayes Taxidermy, Stevens Point, and donated by Woody and Zachary Bishop and Mike Okray, also has found a home in the Savanna exhibit. The large birds, which eat mostly grass and seeds, prefer a variety of wetlands in open country and avoid forested areas.

Both the African Savanna and its companion exhibit were made possible through the generosity of Emeritus Assistant Chancellor for Student Affairs Helen Godfrey. Other donations were made by Okray Family Farms, the William Bond Estate and County Concrete Corp.

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