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The ornithology world suffered a loss in 1944 when the Ivory Billed Woodpecker was declared extinct.
Was the Ivory-bill actually ever declared extinct?
That declaration has been proven false, as scientists are now suspecting that the bird might still be alive.
There's not much conviction in the above wording.
ASU Doctorate student Ken Levenstein has recently been appointed team leader by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University for the research of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.
The Ivory Billed Woodpecker was believed to be extinct since 1944 when loggers working on the Mississippi River destroyed their habitat. Whispers have been said for years about sightings of this magnificent bird, but were ignored by the scientific community.
That's simply not true. Even in the decades prior to 2004, enormous amounts of time and energy were spent fruitlessly following up reported sightings.
“The bird was a really spectacular bird and the fact that it might not be extinct gives us new hope that maybe we can fix something that we did wrong a long time ago.” said Levenstein.
Again, not much conviction.
Dana Ripper, a Master’s graduate from ASU, and undergraduates Kristina Baker and Jamie Conrad were selected to be “searchers.” As many as 40 students applied for Levenstein’s job from various universities from all around the country.“The Cornell University selected some of our students last year for the first part of this project and it’s really exciting that another ASU student was not just selected but appointed team leader,” said Dr. Jim Bednarz, professor of wildlife ecology and Levenstein’s advisor.
Interestingly, this is the same Jim Bednarz who has seen several pileated woodpeckers with an abnormal amount of white wing feathers in the Cache River refuge.
Levenstein, along with Cornell Scientist, Elliott Swarthiest, will be supervising biologists’ efforts. The project is to get underway again in late October.
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