Mateus Eduardo playfully embraces a 212-year-old cork oak tree, July 19 2000, in southern Portugal's town of Aguas de Moura. The Whistler Tree, so named because of the many birds which crowd into its canopy, is believed to be the largest, and perhaps the oldest, cork oak in Portugal. Eduardo, a 25-year-old local farmworker, says that as a teen-ager he and his friends scaled the tree to hide from their parents, play cards and smoke cigarettes. "It's part of the life of any kid from here", he says. The tree is not just a novelty: at this year's harvest, it yelded almost 1,500 kilos (3,300 pounds) of cork. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)