Reading between the lines?

Regardless of their beliefs, we're still at a point where public officials likely don't feel free to say "I don't think Cornell found an Ivory-bill". I think we may need to "read between the lines".

To me, the following points indicate some official skepticism of Cornell's Ivory-bill reports:

1. As I noted here, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has assigned a recovery priority number of 18 (lowest) to the Ivory-bill. Note that this number has actually been lowered since September of 2002, when it stood at 17! If the USFWS completely believed the Ivory-bill rediscovery story, I think they'd assign the Ivory-bill a recovery priority number pretty near 1.

2. Why is Pintail duck hunting allowed this fall in the area where the Ivory-bill sightings were reported? (Note that Tanner said "In flight the Ivory-bill looks surprisingly like a Pintail"). If the decision was yours, and if you believed the Ivory-bill sighting reports, would you allow Pintail hunting in the small area where all the sightings were reported?!

3. Check out the carefully-chosen wording in the story here.