Ivory-billed Woodpecker Revisited

Yesterday I discussed the exciting news that the US woodpecker that was thought to be extinct was still existing in Arkansas. 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.

I mentioned the great field biologist, Arthur Allen. Allen was the first professor of ornithology in the United States and came to Cornell as an undergraduate in 1903.

I would like to tell a story that is documented in the Cornell University archives. In the spring of 1924, Cornell ornithologist Arthur Allen and his wife Elsa were traveling in Florida when they decided to check out an alleged sighting of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Ivory-bills had not been seen for several years. The Allens managed to find a pair and decided to study the birds by observing them but elected not to camp nearby for fear of disturbing what might be the last nesting pair. Much to their dismay, a pair of local taxidermists got a permit and shot the birds legally while the Allens were away.

What can I say?