[TN-Bird] Re: NY Times Article on Ivory-billed Controversy
- From: <cpnichol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
- Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 7:45:31 -0400
Below is the whole article. Available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/science/21bird.html. You'll need to be
registered.
Chuck Nicholson
Norris, TN
New York TImes
July 21, 2005
3 Biologists Question Evidence in Sighting of Rare Woodpecker
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Three biologists are questioning the evidence used by a team of bird experts
who made the electrifying claim in April that they had sighted an ivory-billed
woodpecker, a bird presumed to have vanished from the United States more than
60 years ago, in the swampy forests of southeast Arkansas.
If the challenge holds up, it would undermine not only a scientific triumph -
the rediscovery of a resplendent bird that had been exhaustively sought for
years - but also significant new conservation expenditures in the region.
The paper questioning the discovery has been provisionally accepted by a
peer-reviewed journal, which could post the analysis online within a few weeks.
But the paper will be accompanied by a fierce rebuttal by the team that
announced the discovery, and a response to that rebuttal by the challengers.
The expected publication of the paper and the rebuttal was confirmed in
interviews and e-mail exchanges with two authors of the challenge, Richard O.
Prum and Mark B. Robbins, ornithologists at Yale and the University of Kansas,
as well as with two members of the team that reported finding the woodpecker.
The third author of the new paper is Jerome A. Jackson, a zoologist at Florida
Gulf Coast University and the author of the book, "In Search of the
Ivory-Billed Woodpecker," published in 2004.
"In my opinion," Mr. Jackson wrote in an e-mail message on Wednesday, "the data
presented thus far do no more than suggest the possibility of the presence of
an ivory-billed woodpecker. I am most certainly not saying that ivory-billed
woodpeckers are not out there. I truly hope that the birds do exist in Arkansas
or elsewhere and have been championing this idea for a long time."
Both groups of scientists declined to name the journal or to discuss the
details of the challenge and the response until they were published.
But they made it clear that the debate revolves around four seconds of fuzzy
videotape that, by chance, captured a bird with sweeping white-and-black wings
as it darted from its perch on the far side of a tupelo tree in April 2004 and
flicked over swampy waters before vanishing in the trees 11 wing beats later.
That video clip was just one piece in a pile of drawings, recordings and other
evidence collected in more than a year of searching and deploying cameras and
listening devices across the vast swampy reaches of the Cache River National
Wildlife Refuge.
Altogether, the original research team, led by scientists from Cornell
University and the Nature Conservancy, compiled seven sightings, including the
video, as well as recordings of a "double knock" sound typical of the
ivory-billed bird.
But only the video was potentially solid enough to confirm for the wider
ornithological community the existence of the bird, the authors said in various
statements at the time.
Everyone agrees that the bird that appears on the tape is either an
ivory-billed woodpecker or a pileated woodpecker, a slightly smaller bird that
is relatively common. Both species have a mix of white and black plumage.
However, the ivory-billed woodpecker has a white trailing edge to its wings
while the pileated woodpecker has a black trailing edge.
The team that conducted the original search for the bird ran extensive tests,
including recreating the scene captured in video using flapping, hand-held
models of the two types of woodpecker. They concluded that the plumage patterns
seen in the grainy image could only be that of the ivory-billed woodpecker.
The authors of the new paper disagree.
Only extended scientific discussion - or new pictures of the bird from
additional searches - will determine whose view will prevail. Another intensive
scientific search of the region is scheduled to begin in November, Cornell
officials said.
"The people who originally announced this thoroughly believe they got an
ivory-billed woodpecker," Dr. Robbins said in an interview. Determining if a
species has crossed the threshold of extinction often requires decades of
observation to ensure that no stray individuals have found a reclusive
hideaway.
Supposedly extinct species have been rediscovered with some frequency over the
last century. One famed example is the coelacanth, a huge fish known only from
fossils for generations but then caught by African anglers.
In the case of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a magnificent bird with a 30-inch
wingspan and a red crest, determining that it has not become extinct has proved
equally daunting. Individual birds were widely dispersed, and the woodpecker
shared habits and habitat with the pileated woodpecker.
Van Remsen of Louisiana State University, an expert on the woodpecker and a
member of the team that reported finding the ivory-billed species, said he
remained confident of the discovery.
"We can counter everything," he said. "We stick to our guns."
The announcement of the bird's apparent discovery came on April 28, when the
scientists' findings were published in the online version of the journal
Science.
The announcement thrilled conservationists, who saw the bird as the perfect
symbol around which to build an invigorated protection plan for woodland
habitat in the Southeast, which harbors a rich array of wildlife and plants.
The Bush administration used the reported sightings in Arkansas to promote its
"cooperative conservation" philosophy. The day the rediscovery was publicized,
the administration announced a variety of initiatives, including a plan to pay
more than $13 million to landowners within the region's floodplains who plant
and maintain forests.
John W. Fitzpatrick, the co-leader of the search for the bird and director of
the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology, said it was normal for
scientists to disagree about evidence of this sort, especially because in this
case the video in question was "pretty crummy."
But he said that extensive analysis was done and redone to eliminate the
possibility that the bird was a pileated woodpecker.
Dr. Fitzpatrick added that there was "significant additional evidence right
now" that would be published in coming months.
He declined to comment on the challengers' assertions, saying any discussion
could jeopardize publication of the exchange of papers on the video.
**************************************************
>
> From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
> Date: 2005/07/20 Wed PM 11:54:29 EDT
> To: missbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ARBIRD-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
> tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, albirds@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [TN-Bird] NY Times Article on Ivory-billed Controversy
>
>
> Here is the beginning of the article on the Ivory-billed controversy which
> will appear tomorrow.
> The three authors of the submitted paper are Richard Prum and Mark Robbins
> plus Jerome Jackson.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> 3 Biologists Question Evidence in Sighting of Rare Woodpecker
> By ANDREW C. REVKIN
> Published: July 21, 2005
> Three biologists are questioning the evidence used by a team of bird
> experts who made the electrifying claim in April that they had sighted
> an ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird presumed to have vanished from the
> United States more than 60 years ago, in the swampy forests of
> southeast Arkansas.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> The Cannons will roar!!!
>
> Good Birding!!!
>
> Jeff R. Wilson
> OL'COOT / TLBA
> Bartlett, TN
>
>
>
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