Even the naysayers now say the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker lives

[Sherry <sshadday at worldnet dot att dot net>]

Here is a news story from Science News:


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/science/02bird.html?ex=1123646400&en=fdd903b549f5163a&ei=5058&partner=IWON


Vindication for Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and Its Fans


Even the most skeptical ornithologists now agree. They say newly
presented recordings show that at least two of the birds are living in
Arkansas.


Richard O. Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University and one of several
scientists who had challenged the most recently claimed rediscovery of
the ivory bill, said Monday after listening to the tape recordings that
he was now {quot}strongly convinced that there is at least a pair of
ivory bills out there.{quot}


Mark B. Robbins, an ornithologist at the University of Kansas, who had
also been a skeptic, listened to the same recordings with a graduate
student and said, {quot}We were absolutely stunned.{quot}


Dr. Robbins said the recordings, provided by the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology, were {quot}astounding.{quot} Of a paper questioning claims
of the woodpecker's discovery that he, Dr. Prum and another scientist had
submitted to the Public Library of Science, he said, {quot}It's all moot
at this point; the bird's here.{quot}


That was what the Cornell lab said last April, when it announced that an
ivory bill had been sighted in February 2004 in the Cache River National
Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. In April 2005, a group of scientists
published a paper in the journal Science on the rediscovery, with a
heavily analyzed but blurry video. 


After widespread euphoria, three skeptics - Dr. Prum, Dr. Robbins and
Jerome A. Jackson, a zoologist at Florida Gulf Coast University -
prepared their criticism. Prominent birders like David Allen Sibley and
Kenn Kaufman agreed that the evidence in the Science paper was not
conclusive. 


But while the skeptics' paper was still in the works, the Cornell team
provided several audio recordings to Dr. Prum and Dr. Robbins. Dr.
Jackson, who was out of the country, has not had a chance to listen to
them, Dr. Prum said. The evidence was so convincing - the characteristic
nasal {quot}kent{quot} call and double raps on a tree - that Dr. Prum and
Dr. Robbins withdrew their challenge. 


{quot}The thrilling new sound recordings provide clear and convincing
evidence that the ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct,{quot} Dr. Prum
said in a statement.


The snippet of videotape that until now was the strongest individual
piece of evidence showed only one bird. But the sound recordings, made
over many months in the White River National Wildlife Refuge, just south
of Cache River, provide vital signs that a potential breeding population
persists, said experts and officials involved with the search.


{quot}We felt all along that the White River was probably the core of the
bird's habitat and it was dispersing out,{quot} said Sam Hamilton, the
Southeast regional director for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service and
chairman of a panel overseeing the drafting of a recovery plan for the
bird. 


The scientific consensus on the strength of the sound recordings from
that region was {quot}very, very exciting,{quot} Mr. Hamilton said.
{quot}It gives you chill bumps to think about that vast bottomland
hardwood being certainly home to more than one bird.{quot}


Dr. Prum said the double raps appeared to be from a pair of ivory bills
communicating with each other, one close and one far away. {quot}I'm
thinking about when I should head down to Arkansas,{quot} he
said.


John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and a
primary author of the Science paper that announced the bird's survival,
said, {quot}The birds are there, which we knew.{quot} But Dr. Fitzpatrick
said he was happy that a scientific battle in print had been avoided.



{quot}We sent them the sounds,{quot} he said. {quot}I wish we'd done that
earlier.{quot} But he noted that the process was {quot}science in action,
at its messy best.{quot}


The manager of the 160,000-acre White River refuge, Larry E. Mallard,
said the boggy woodlands there had been actively logged for generations
in a way that took care to protect areas friendly to wildlife. As a
result, Mr. Mallard said, one rare species after another has returned,
including bald eagles and swallow-tailed kites. 


The ivory bill topped it all, he said.


{quot}Now Elvis has come along,{quot} he said, {quot}and said: 'I'm the
rock star. Look at me.' {quot}




_______________________________________________

"Utah Birds" web site: http://www.utahbirds.org
     BirdTalk:
To subscribe, e-mail:  birdtalk-subscribe@utahbirds.org
To unsubscribe, e-mail:  birdtalk-unsubscribe@utahbirds.org
To send a message, e-mail:  birdtalk@utahbirds.org
_________________________________________________