(2/24/99)
TOKYO (AP) -- In the dating game, persistence often pays off.
But Deko, a 5-year-old albatross on an island south of Tokyo, has set himself an impossible goal.
For two years he has been trying to woo what he believes to be the love of his life. He's built her fancy nests, fought off rival suitors, and spent countless days standing faithfully by her side.
But his one-and-only is a man-made decoy -- and despite the blank stare and wooden personality, he still hasn't caught on.
The decoy is one of nearly 100 placed on the Izu islands, 375 miles south of Tokyo, to attract endangered albatrosses and encourage them to breed, a spokeswoman for the Yamashina Institute of Ornithology said Wednesday.
The experiment, begun in 1991, has been successful in attracting albatrosses to land on the islands and mingle with other birds. A few have even mated and produced offspring.
Institute researcher Fumio Sato worries that Deko's infatuation with the decoy is keeping him from meeting a mate.
``He seems to have no desire to date real birds,'' Sato observed. ``It's a phenomenon duplicated in humans and their desire to virtually date people they meet on the Internet.''