(Re-)Discovery − 28 April, 2005
Long Thought Extinct, Ivory-billed Woodpecker Rediscovered in Big Woods of Arkansas
Multiple sightings, video footage show bird survives in vast forested areas
Brinkley, Arkansas—April 28, 2005—Long believed to be extinct, a magnificent bird – the ivory-billed woodpecker – has been rediscovered in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. More than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team today announced that at least one male ivory-bill still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest.
Published in the journal Science on its Science Express Web site (April 28, 2005), the findings include multiple sightings of the elusive woodpecker and frame-by-frame analyses of brief video footage. The evidence was gathered during an intensive year-long search in the Cache River and White River national wildlife refuges involving more than 50 experts and field biologists working together as part of the Big Woods Conservation Partnership, led by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy.
“The bird captured on video is clearly an ivory-billed woodpecker,” said John Fitzpatrick, the Science article’s lead author, and director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. “Amazingly, America may have another chance to protect the future of this spectacular bird and the awesome forests in which it lives.”
“It is a landmark rediscovery,” said Scott Simon, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Arkansas chapter. “Finding the ivory-bill in Arkansas validates decades of great conservation work and represents an incredible story of hope for the future.”
Multiple sightings, video footage show bird survives in vast forested areas
Brinkley, Arkansas—April 28, 2005—Long believed to be extinct, a magnificent bird – the ivory-billed woodpecker – has been rediscovered in the Big Woods of eastern Arkansas. More than 60 years after the last confirmed sighting of the species in the United States, a research team today announced that at least one male ivory-bill still survives in vast areas of bottomland swamp forest.
Published in the journal Science on its Science Express Web site (April 28, 2005), the findings include multiple sightings of the elusive woodpecker and frame-by-frame analyses of brief video footage. The evidence was gathered during an intensive year-long search in the Cache River and White River national wildlife refuges involving more than 50 experts and field biologists working together as part of the Big Woods Conservation Partnership, led by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy.
“The bird captured on video is clearly an ivory-billed woodpecker,” said John Fitzpatrick, the Science article’s lead author, and director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. “Amazingly, America may have another chance to protect the future of this spectacular bird and the awesome forests in which it lives.”
“It is a landmark rediscovery,” said Scott Simon, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Arkansas chapter. “Finding the ivory-bill in Arkansas validates decades of great conservation work and represents an incredible story of hope for the future.”
Comments:
kga245 (September 14, 2006. 12:22am)
I remember hearing <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4622633">this story on NPR</a>.
jcolman (September 14, 2006. 02:43am)
We worked day and night for weeks strategizing, writing, designing, and producing content on <a href="http://www.nature.org/">The Nature Conservancy's site</a> as well as <a href="http://www.ivorybill.org/">ivorybill.org</a> and getting everything set up with Akamai for hosting. The technical folks at Cornell were great to work with and they produced some really fine content on <a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ivory/">their site</a>.