Why one researcher wants to protect the habitat of an 'extinct' woodpecker
There have been numerous reported sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker over the years, but officially, the species has been considered extinct for decades.
There have been numerous reported sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker over the years, but officially, the species has been considered extinct for decades.
There鈥檚 a bird living in the swamps of Louisiana and Florida.聽Navy researcher Michael Collins has video footage of it. The question is whether it鈥檚 the one聽he thinks it is.
In a study published this week in open-access journal Heliyon, Dr. Collins presents three videos of a bird he identifies as the ivory-billed woodpecker, a species that has been declared extinct but glimpsed by researchers on rare occasions over the years. The images may be too blurry to serve as incontrovertible evidence. But in eight years and 1,500 hours of searching, Collins says, the videos "show birds with flights, behaviors, field marks, and other characteristics that are consistent with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker but no other species inhabiting the region."
The study surfaces聽questions about what scientists should do to protect the habitat of a bird whose continued existence isn鈥檛 well-established聽鈥撀燼nd whether existing standards of proof are sufficient for species that are notoriously elusive.聽
Back in 2005, 海角大神 reported on the first confirmed sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in nearly 60 years, by Living Bird magazine editor Timothy Gallagher in a remote part of northeastern Arkansas:
Collins says that in solo expeditions dating back to 2005, he鈥檚 glimpsed the bird on 10 occasions. In a press release, he compared it to watching the moon landing.聽
"I feel very privileged to have been a direct eyewitness to a symbol of the vanishing wilderness of our world as well as one of the great achievements of mankind," he said.聽
But the swamps where the woodpeckers are thought to live are not easily plied 鈥� they鈥檙e heavily hunted and full of alligators, wild boars, and venomous snakes, and the vegetation is generally too dense to see very far through it. Plus, the woodpeckers aren鈥檛 keen on conspicuous behaviors, and attempts to photograph them could interfere with nesting.聽
For these reasons, he argues, indisputable photographic evidence聽could take years to obtain. And by then, it might be too late.聽
"There is no logical reason to require a particular form of evidence," says Collins. "When faced with an exceptional case, scientists often develop alternative approaches and make progress using different types of data."