Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Vindication for Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

Vindication for Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and Its Fans
(New York Times)
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 “kent” call and double raps on a tree—that Dr. Prum and Dr. Robbins withdrew their challenge.

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

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dr. Prum and all those like-minded bastards made me skeptical too. There has been persistent, if vague and undocumented, evidence that these birds made it since they were first declared extinct.

I'm still grateful to be assured that this symbol of America's primeval forests is still with us but after reading, "The Grail Bird," I'm also mad at all the ornithological nay-sayers who kept 40 years of evidence--including photographs!--at arms length because it came from amateurs.