Date Posted:07:37:35 01/28/02 Mon Author: Greg Subject: Re: Ivory-billed Woodpecker Article In reply to:
jean
's message, "Re: Ivory-billed Woodpecker Article" on 13:01:30 01/22/02 Tue
Jean, it is true that I believe Ivory-billeds are indeed extinct. I would love to be proven wrong, mind you!
These birds were never very common (at least in the last 150 years) for a variety of reasons. Habitat destruction, the single worst phrase in the naturalist's vocabulary, was the main culprit.
I would like to think that somewhere, anywhere, enough of the right habitat exists for this species to hang on.
From what Mrs. Tanner told me, the Ivory-billed woodpecker was quite noisy and conspicuous, and that if they are around, they are generally rather easy to locate. Mrs. Tanner may be the only living person to have seen wild Ivory-billed woodpeckers with regularity. Based on this, my belief is that IF there are Ivory-billeds surviving in the Pearl River area, then this search team will find them.
Of course I will follow the search just like everyone else, and I agree with you--let's hope they hold on!
Greg
>Greg ... sounds like you can't possibly believe that
>the Ivory-billed can still be in existance ... well,
>birds have feathers, can fly, and can adapt to living
>conditions better that we humans can ... I always say
>that anything is possible... let's hope this
>impossibility turns into the possible ... :}
