The book basically documents how 3 ornithologists from Cornell Ornithology Lab and other places saw an Ivory Billed Woodpecker, but NO other evidence or sightings has been collected since that happened in 2003. We think there are only 2 incredulous possible conclusions: either all those trained professionals are wrong, or we have to completely change our understanding of how a species goes extinct, and maybe even some of the basic details about that bird. Does it travel hundreds of miles in a day? Is that why they have not found any more auditory evidence? Can a population survive with 3 or 4 individuals spread out among that much territory? That is a very limited gene pool. Is there perhaps and new subspecies of pileated that for some unknown reason evolved in the absence of the ivory-billed to have very similar characteristics?
Mind you, since they "re-discovered" this previously extinct bird, there has been a huge effort by many orgs to find more evidence. Heck, they even put 1000's of acres of this swamp into permanent conservation just because of this sighting (maybe that was the lab's end game)? No one has found anything. But these sightings were done by respected professionals, who only had much to lose by claiming they saw the birding world's sasquatch.
While the book was only mildly entertaining it does document a very peculiar biologic phenomenon.
Maggie and I did see an immature bald eagle on the drive back... not a grail bird but still cool to see.
ReplyDeleteWhat do we really know about this bird? Nearly everything is from studying one pair in the 30s. Maybe they were unique in some way. Maybe we have it way off. Maybe we are looking in the wrong area. Determining if the bird still exists is an interesting question. I believe that the bird was sighted but it seems like they found one bird. Just one. That means that some must still exist. Some where. But, now five years later, are they still there? With 1000s of people actively looking for this one species, it is hard to believe that they are coming up with nothing. Nothing. I believe that in our technological age that having no images or sound recordings indicates that there are none to be found. Even the pair that was found in the 30s has crisp pictures and that was in the 30s. With improvements in cameras and such it just is difficult to understand the lack of evidence (even if there are occasional "sitings").
ReplyDeleteOne other idea is the drive to find the bird. Imagine if a ivory billed was positively found. That area and a large buffer would be instantly preserved and put off limits (hopefully anyway). If you are concerned with the environment, preservation, or birding that is great. But if you are a land owner or hunter, your land is now out of your hands. I would like to think that this important discovery would be promoted by all but it may not be true. Perhaps, and this is just a big maybe, people have seen evidence and have chosen not to bring it forward. That is another end of the spectrum.
You mean kinda like this?
ReplyDeleteYa know - the amount of stuff that we think we know vs the amount of stuff that we actually have no real idea about often boggles my mind.
ReplyDeleteI second Kevin's notions. I think it is highly dubious to expect that after all of these years, there are only a handful of spread out birds remaining.
I saw those videos, I think it is a raccoon wearing a woodpecker costume and jetpack.
I blame the birders for killing it, just like they did to this poor owl.