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With defense money, scientists swap eggs to reverse lark's decline

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Wildlife biologists are employing a little trickery to stop the downward spiral of a rare grassland bird in Western Washington. On Friday, biologists took eggs from healthier larks in Oregon and swapping them into western Washington nests, hoping the lark mothers don't notice.

The streaked horned lark is a songbird native to western Oregon and Washington. This little guy is slightly smaller than a robin.

The bird is a candidate for the federal endangered species list. Biologist Hannah Anderson with the Center for Natural Lands Management noticed a high rate of hatching failures among horned larks on south Puget Sound prairies.

"We think they're inbred and having low genetic diversity," Anderson says. "We're trying to infuse the population with increased diversity by bringing in eggs from a population not exhibiting signs of inbreeding."

Those replacement eggs come from Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Anderson says the female larks in Washington don't appear to realize they've been duped.

"Both of the first two, the mother has returned to the nest and incubated the eggs and the eggs hatched," she says.

Money for the two-year project comes from an unexpected source, the Defense Department. Anderson explains the military hopes to ward off an endangered species listing that could limit training at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

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Copyright 2011 Northwest News Network

Correspondent Tom Banse is an Olympia-based reporter with more than three decades of experience covering Washington and Oregon state government, public policy, business and breaking news stories. Most of his career was spent with public radio's Northwest News Network, but now in semi-retirement his work is appearing on other outlets.