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Final
Report
Collaborating Institutions
Search Schedule
Media Access
Search Team
Cornell Lab Team
Search Planning Team
Background on Sighting
Recent Articles
Additional Info
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 Zeiss Sports Optics is sponsoring an intensive search
for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the Pearl River Wildlife Management
Area in southeastern Louisiana, one of the largest blocks of forest remaining
in the southeastern USA. This is where LSU Student David Kulivan reported
seeing a pair at close range in April 1999. Although subsequent searches
failed to confirm the initial sighting, Kulivan's report was sufficiently
credible, and the area so large and relatively inaccessible, that many
of us think that a systematic, intensive search of the area is imperative.
Representatives from Zeiss contacted Remsen in Fall 2000 about sponsoring
such a systematic search. We decided that it was not feasible to organize
a search by January 2001 and that a year or more was needed for finding
observers and planning the search.
The plan of the search is as follows. From a pool of 50 highly-qualified
applicants, we selected six people with a range of field skills, from
expert birders with legendary skills at finding rare birds to professional
biologists who have studied large woodpeckers, to spend 30 days in the
Pearl and adjacent areas, starting 17 January. Mid-winter was chosen for
the search because this is when the birds should be most vocal (in advance
of the early spring breeding season) and when detectability is greatest
(absence of leaves improves chances at visual and audio detection). A
combination of satellite imagery, aerial photographs, timber data, and
first-hand experience of some of the Planning Team members is being used
to prioritize the 35,000 acres within the WMA in terms of likelihood of
supporting Ivory-billed woodpecker. Prioritization is guided in part by
what we know about Ivory-billed habitat preference from James Tanner's
study of the last viable population of this species, in what is now Tensas
National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Louisiana.
The Search Team will spend the first week visting briefly as much of the
area as possible to further refine the plan in terms of which areas will
receive the most intensive surveys. Three two-person teams will then search
the area, by foot and canoe, starting with the highest-priority areas.
Each searcher will have a digital video-camera for documenting the presence
of the birds, if found.
Additionally, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology will be deploying
12 remote listsening devices at key locations that will record sounds
continuously in hopes of documenting the presence of the birds by sound
recordings. (Details on this state-of-the-art
methodology.)
If the search is successful, we will notify the public as soon as is feasible.
Media access will be coordinated through Shannon Jackson. The State of
Louisiana is in the process of formulating a plan to control access to
the site; details of this plan will be posted here as they become available.
Because the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is an Endangered Species, and protection
of any remaining population would be critically important, access to the
area will be limited by all applicable federal laws.
Natural Heritage
Program, Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries
Museum
of Natural Science, Louisiana State University
Cornell Laboratory
of Ornithology
Start date is 17 January
2002; search will last 30 good-weather days.
Please contact Shannon
Jackson at Zeiss for any media access to the search. To minimize potential
interference with the search itself, media access will be restricted to
no more than two sets of people at any one time.
E-mail: ssjpr@email.msn.com
Telephone: (804) 343-3608]
Richard L. Knight:
Rick is one of Tennessee's most active and experienced birders, and has
legendary field skills. Rick wrote "The Birds of Northeast Tennessee"
(1994) as well as over 30 articles in The Migrant and The
Chat.
Martjan Lammertink: over the past several years, Martjan has
studied woodpeckers together in Indonesia, mainly on Borneo, where he
has extensive experience surveying for woodpeckers that occur in low densities
in tropical swamps, mangroves, and lowland forests. Earlier, Martjan made
extensive searches for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker in Cuba and for the
Imperial Woodpecker in Mexico. (Read
more about Martjan.)
David Luneau (Professor of Electronics and Computers, Univ. of
Arkansas at Little Rock); David has already spent extensive time searching
the area, and he will assist in deploying electronic recording devices
to detect woodpeckers. (Read more about David.)
Peter McBride: Peter is a habitat biologist who did his thesis research
on the Magellanic Woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus),
and has extensive field research experience in several areas of North
America and South America.
Alison R. Styring LSU Dept. of Biological Sciences and Museum of
Natural Science; doctoral student using woodpecker census techniques in
her disstertation.
Alan Wormington: Alan is one of the most experienced birders in
North America, as reflected by his past membership on the American Birding
Association Checklist Committee and the Editorial Board of North American
Birds. (Read more about Alan.)
The Cornell
Laboratory of Ornithology team for deployment of the listening devices
consists of:
Dr. John W. Fitzpatrick, Director, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
(Read more about John.)
Dr. Kenneth V. Rosenberg,
Director of Conservation Science, CLO.
Dr. Chris Clark, Director, Bioacoustics Research Program, CLO.
To maximize the efficiency
and likelihood of detection, we have formed an official team to plan the
search. So far, the team includes Remsen, the searchers (Knight, Wormington,
Lammertink, Setiorini-Lammertink, Luneau, McBride) and:
Nancy Higginbotham (LA Dept. Wildlife & Fisheries Natural Heritage
Program)
Dr. Gary Lester (LA Dept. Wildlife & Fisheries, Natural Heritage
Program, Coordinator)
Steve Shively (formerly LDWF Natural Heritage Program; currently
U.S. Forest Service)
David Kulivan (of the original sighting)
Dr. Vernon Wright (LSU School Forestry, Wildlife & Fisheries;
statistician and veteran of recent Pearl River searches)
Dr. Keith Ouchley (The Nature Conservancy of Louisiana)
Dr. Jerome A. Jackson (Florida Gulf Coast University; world's leading
authority on the history and biology of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker)
Dr. John W. Fitzpatrick
(Director, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology).
For background on
the recent sighting and impending search, see:
Carter, Hodding. 2001. Outside Magazine.
Blom, Erik A. T. Is the Ivorybill really extinct? Birdwatcher's Digest.
Graham, Frank, Jr. 2000. Is the Ivorybill back? Audubon magazine.
Martel, Brett. 2000. Louisiana student claims to see extinct bird. AP wire story, November 4.
Pianin, Eric. 2001. Tracking down a true rara avis. Washington
Post, Thursday 20 December 2001, pp. A03, A06 .
Rosen, Jonathan. 2001. The ghost bird. The New Yorker, 14 March, pp. 61-67.
Shively, Steve. Ivory-billed Woodpecker sightings at Pearl River WMA?
LOS News 189 (Feb. 2000).
Williams, J. J. 2001. Ivory-billed dreams, Ivory-billed reality. Birding
33: 514-522.
The Atlanta Journal
and Constitution, January 18, 2002, Home Edition, Pg.
18A, Rare
or extinct? Experts seek ivory-billed bird, Charles Seabrook
USA Today, January 17, 2002, Search
for ivory-billed woodpecker begins, Kathleen Fackelmann
Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2002, Wednesday, Section
A; Page 1, Column 4, Ruffled
feathers: bird "extinct" for 6 decades inspires a search party,
Dan Morse
The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), January 15, 2002; National, Pg.
1, Birdcall
heard 'round the world; 'Extinct' woodpecker is sought in swamp, By
Robert George; Staff writer
The Hartford Courant, January 2, 2002, Statewide, Editorial; Pg.
A6, Treasure
Hunt
The Ottawa Citizen, December 24, 2001, Ho!
The Ottawa Citizen, December 21, 2001, Rare
sightings inspire scientific searches: Unseen and presumed extinct for
50 years, ivory-billed woodpecker has been spotted, Alison Korn
The Times (London), December 21, 200, Overseas news, Search
for lost bird of Louisiana, Nicholas Wapshott in New York
The Washington Post, December 20, 200, Final Edition, A SECTION;
Pg. A03, Tracking
Down a True Rara Avis; Long Believed Extinct, Majestic Woodpecker Spotted
in Wildlife Area, Eric Pianin, Washington Post Staff Writer
Read
the original announcement soliciting applications for searchers.
Learn more about the area (and lore surrounding previous searches):
http://www.birdingamerica.com/Ivorybill/ivorybilledwoodpecker.htm
LDWF quick review of identification of Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
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