BRINKLEY, Ark., April 28 - The ivory-billed woodpecker, a magnificent bird long given up for extinct, has been sighted in the cypress and tupelo swamp of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge here in Arkansas, scientists announced Thursday. Posted on 04/28/2005 8:38:29 PM PDT by LibWhacker
BRINKLEY, Ark., April 28 - The ivory-billed woodpecker, a magnificent bird long given up for extinct, has been sighted in the cypress and tupelo swamp of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge here in Arkansas, scientists announced Thursday.
Bird experts, government agencies and conservation organizations involved kept the discovery secret for more than a year, while they worked to confirm the discovery and protect the bird's territory. Their announcement on Thursday brought rejoicing among birdwatchers, for whom the ivory bill has long been a holy grail - a creature that has been called the Lord God bird, apparently because that is what people exclaimed when they saw it.
Dr. John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who led the effort to confirm the sightings, said at a news conference in Washington, "This is really the most spectacular creature we could imagine rediscovering."
He was joined by Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, who announced that her agency, along with the Department of Agriculture, had proposed to spend $10 million in federal money for research, habitat protection and law enforcement efforts to protect the bird. The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups have bought land in the region of the refuge to help preserve a larger area.
The bird was seen in thickly forested bottomland near here, the deep, wet woods immortalized by Faulkner. On Thursday, researchers were traveling by canoe down slow-flowing clay-colored bayous hoping for another sighting, and working to finish up surveys of the territory.
With its 30-inch wingspan and formidable bill, its sharp black and white coloring, and the male's carmine crest, the ivory bill was the largest of American woodpeckers, described by John James Audubon as "this great chieftain of the woodpecker tribe."
Once a dominant creature of great Southern hardwood forest, its numbers dwindled as logging increased. The woodpecker inspired one of the first conservation efforts in the nation's history, but its seeming failure turned the ivory bill into a symbol of loss. The last documented sighting was in Louisiana in 1944.
But the ivory bill lived on as a kind of ghost in rumor and in numerous possible sightings. Despite lengthy expeditions, no sighting was confirmed, until Feb. 11, 2004.
On that date Gene M. Sparling III sighted a large woodpecker with a red crest in the Cache River refuge. Tim W. Gallagher at the Cornell Lab saw the report from Mr. Sparling on a Web site where he was describing a kayak trip.
Within two weeks Mr. Gallagher and Bobby R. Harrison of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala., were in a canoe in the refuge, with Mr. Sparling guiding them.
Mr. Gallagher said he had expected to camp out for a week, but after one night out, on Feb. 27, he and Mr. Harrison were paddling up a bayou bounded on both sides by cypress and tupelo when they saw a very large woodpecker fly in front of their canoe.
When they wrote down their notes independently and compared them, Mr. Gallagher said, Mr. Harrison was struck by the reality of the discovery and began sobbing, repeating, "I saw an ivory bill."
Mr. Gallagher felt the same. "I couldn't speak," he said.
Once Mr. Gallagher convinced Dr. Fitzpatrick of Cornell, the effort to confirm the sightings began in earnest, and the result, published in the online version of Science, carried the names of 16 people from seven institutions who participated in a search that turned up seven confirmed new sightings and a blurry bit of videotape.
An analysis of the video to determine the size and manner of flying of the bird, as well as the other sightings and the detailed reports of experts like Mr. Gallagher, proved convincing.
Dr. Edward O. Wilson, the Harvard ecologist and writer who has called the ivory bill the signature bird of the Southern forest, said the question now was whether there was a breeding population.
"I'm a little hopeful," he said, given that the previous confirmed sighting was 60 years ago. The birds live about 15 years, so some breeding population had to have survived for some time.
Frank Gill, former president of the National Audubon Society, said of the news, "You get so depressed by the state of things, to suddenly have this happen in your backyard" is wonderful, "just the thought that there are places in the world still - deep wilderness - harboring a secret like this."
One particularly bright spot, Dr. Fitzpatrick said, is that the place where the bird was seen is already protected.
The bayou where the bird was sighted is in thick swamp where even a great blue heron taking off not 20 yards away disappeared immediately.
On a paddle through the bayou led by researchers from the Cornell Lab and a representative of the Nature Conservancy, the flat, clay-colored water was broken only by the splashing of turtles and the rapid-fire paddling of a frightened wood duck chick. Birds in the distance were heard but not seen. There was no sign of an ivory bill.
As Dr. Fitzpatrick put it, the woodpecker is doing a good job of "protecting itself." He added, "It is really scarce and really wary."
Now the effort to protect the bird will continue, as will the search for other individuals.
Scott Simon, state director of the Nature Conservancy in Arkansas, said the finding was a validation of the kind of cooperative conservation on the part of private organizations and government that had thrived in Arkansas. Mr. Simon said he hoped it would promote conservation and acknowledged that ecotourism, fed by the ivory bill, could have benefits.
But for now, he said, "we would like people to give us a little bit of time."
As for the woodpeckers, there is only proof of one bird so far. If there are more, then perhaps, Dr. Gill said, "we can put Humpty Dumpty back together again."
Nobody wants to think about the alternative. If the last living ivory bill has been found, the discovery may be more bitter than sweet.
Jeez . . . Is this guy a phony or what?
A peckerwood? In Arkansas? Say it ain't so.
I thought there was a fairly reliable report of a sighting in south Mississippi a year or so ago, near the Pearl River.
Not quite as tender as a Spotted Owl, but less gamy than a California Condor.
I love nature too.... but get a life!!!
The bird was thought to have been extinct for about seventy years and made it just fine but now needs $10,000,000 to protect it and that's just "start up" money.
Hey, I caught some of those! I was using snail darters as bait! :-)
I was using Kangaroo Rats.
Less slimy.
Seriously. I once saw people throw wreaths into the Ohio river because of something or another about fish. However I too enjoy nature and am inclined to think that protecting some habitat for truly endangered species may not be a bad idea......?
I was gonna use a Kangaroo Rat, but a black bear ate it. So I shot that son of a gun and made a rug out of him.
There was an earlier version of the story posted as thread #1392826 ("Ivory-billed woodpecker..."). Post #32 on that thread is a recipe for roast woodpecker.
I find this story kind of nice. The artwork is fabulous, I wonder who did it.
The bird already lives in a protected area, it's obviously working. I'm glad we found another species thought extinct to be around. Remember when they pulled up that fish that was from the dinosaur age? That was fabulous.
Maybe next...Nessie!
Clone them quickly in large numbers so tax payers will not have to spend billions protecting them from extinction again.
ol' hoghead
Also known as metrosexual. Arnolds description is best... girlie men.
What kind of wine should be served?
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