[at-l] Ivory Billed Woodpecker

[mizwaterfall at yahoo.com (Nina Baxley Rogers)]

The story of the ivory-billed woodpecker, and its
demise, is a fascinating but sad one. While working on
my trail guide to Louisiana last year, I had the
opportunity to hike a trail in the Tensas River
National Wildlife Refuge, where the ivory-billed was
last spotted. It is a beautiful area, but less
beautiful with the loss of this bird.

Waterfall

--- RoksnRoots@aol.com wrote:
> 
> 
>         If you have a local Audubon Club look up
> their public meetings and 
> attend one if you are interested in the woods. The
> meetings are 3 or 4 dollars 
> cover charge. The usual length is an hour and a half
> of brilliant slide shows 
> and presentations on birds and conservation. The
> presenters are usually renown 
> experts.
> 
>            Last night's topic was the Ivory Billed
> Woodpecker. It was full of 
> interesting tidbits telling of their original range
> and numbers and 
> present-day near extinction. The speaker was Jerry
> Jackson, Phd zoologist. This large 
> woodpecker once inhabited the southern US, including
> the Georgia AT into North 
> Carolina. Very similar in appearance to the Pileated
> Woodpecker (seen on the 
> AT), the Ivory Billed is not closely related to its
> look-a-like. It is closer 
> to the Flicker. The reason Pileated's remain in
> large numbers and the Ivory 
> Billed doesn't is because it depends solely on the
> larvae of a large beetle that 
> bores in dead snags. The Ivory Billed is heavily
> dependent on old growth for 
> the large number of standing large trunks needed for
> both feeding and 
> nest-building. When the US timbered its last virgin
> pine forests in the south, the 
> Ivory Bill went with its habitat. 
> 
>          Jackson was critical of how wars affect
> habitat and species in the 
> US. He had charts showing how post-conflict
> activities negatively affected 
> forest quality and species counts. The downfall of
> the Ivory Bill was the post 
> Civil War federalizing of southern forests. From
> there timber companies were 
> allowed to lease forests for $1.25 and acre for
> harvesting.   Wrenching were the 
> tales of how even scientists commonly shot and
> stuffed Ivory Bill specimens. 
> The rare look of the Ivory Bill lead to collecting.
> In 1939 an Orlando man 
> photographed two of the last remaining Ivory Bills
> near Orlando. Before he could 
> bring a naturalist back to confirm the sighting a
> guide had escorted a 
> taxidermist in and shot them both. They were sold
> for $75 dollars each to FSU. They 
> were the last Ivory Bills ever seen in Florida. 
> 
>          The last American sighting was in the
> 1940's in a conservation tract 
> in northern Louisiana. It was leased by the Singer
> sewing machine company up 
> until the lease ran out and the old growth was cut.
> In 1986-87 Jackson was 
> granted a special permit by the Cuban government to
> search for Ivory Bills. In a 
> small high-elevation forest of remaining old growth
> on Cuba's east tip he 
> found a snag with the distinctive chevron-shaped
> pecking marks made by the Ivory 
> Bill. He also recorded several Ivory Bill calls from
> a distance. After staking 
> out the tree at 300 meters distance for 3 days,
> Jackson saw what he believes 
> was an Ivory Billed Woodpecker fly 30 feet in front
> of their lookout. This was 
> the last official sighting of the great American
> Ivory Billed Woodpecker. 
> There has been no information from Cuba since and
> there has been no recorded 
> effort to by Cuba to protect the bird.      
> 
>           Last year there was excitement in
> Louisiana over the reported 
> recording of an Ivory Bill call heard in a swamp.
> Jackson was amongst the experts 
> who informed them it was only gunshots which sounded
> similar to the Ivory 
> Bill's simple call...
> 
>            
> 
> 
>           
> 
>             
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