Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Just how wary was the IBWO?

In "The Grail Bird", page 248, it says:
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[John Fitzpatrick] also suggested that perhaps during the years when the birds were hunted extensively by collectors, only the quietest and wariest individuals in a few remnant forests survived to pass on their genes to future generations. This could explain why it is so difficult to find an ivory-bill and record its calls. Perhaps all the noisy and approachable ones were killed off a century ago.
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This is a very key issue. If the Ivory-billed woodpecker exists today, how wary is it likely to be?

Let's start with a snippet from Allen and Kellogg's 1930's paper:
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The destruction of Ivorybills by the Indians in the early days is mentioned even by Catesby, in 1731. In his original description of the bird, "Pious maximus rostro albo," he says, "The bills of these Birds are much valued by the Canada Indians, who made coronets of 'em for their Princes and Great Warriors by fixing them round a wreath with the points outward. The Northern Indians, having none of these Birds in their cold country, purchase them of the Southern People at the price of two, and sometimes three, Buckskins a Bill." Thus early did commercialization of the Ivorybill start, and the price on its head has continued to the present day.
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Ok, so there was hunting pressure on Ivorybills for at least 200 years prior to the 1930s.

Later in that same 1930s paper, Allen wrote:
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This same sedentary habit, once a community has been located by collectors, has made it possible in the past to exterminate local groups of Ivorybills, and this may well have happened even in the name of science.
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In other words, even when other Ivory-bills in the community were shot, the remaining Ivory-bills didn't turn canny and flee. They stayed around and were shot as well. In 1944, the last authenticated U.S. Ivory-bill was also half-tame, allowing Don Eckelberry to watch and sketch her at a roost-hole for two weeks.

In the last 60+ years, we have no records that anyone's shot an Ivory-bill. Any remaining birds faced no more hunting pressure than a Downy, Hairy, or Pileated Woodpecker. I see no reason why the Ivorybill would stay half-tame through over 200 years of hunting pressure, then make a quantum leap to ultra-wariness during 60+ years of no hunting pressure.

In short, I see no reason that an Ivorybill in 2005 would be any more wary than an Ivorybill in 1935.

Some more stories from the waning days of the Ivorybill:

According to "The Grail Bird", page 8, it says that the Ivorybill was believed extinct in 1920. In 1924, Arthur Allen, while traveling in Florida, checked out an alleged ivorybill sighting and managed to locate an active nest. One day while he was away, a couple of local collectors shot the pair of woodpeckers-legally. In the 1930s, a man named Mason Spencer told the director of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries that he'd seen ivorybills. The book goes on:
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Incredulous, the director drew up a collecting permit for Spencer and challenged him to prove it. A short time later, Spencer came back with a freshly shot ivorybill, and as legend has it, flung it down on the director's desk.
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Again, this is evidence that when the Ivorybill was rare but not extinct, it could be seen well. People walked right up and shot them, and it didn't take 20,000 hours of intense field work to get some glimpses of something that may or may not be the bird.

Bottom line: I think it's likely that the Ivory-billed woodpecker is extinct.

1 comment:

Owlman said...

Great post Tom. The fact that the IBWO was so 'tame' is a very important spect to bear in mind when considering the evidence around the discovery of the IBWO. I have been posting a lot on the topic and I linked to your post.