Taps for woodpecker? Search team not sure
No ivory-bills spotted despite sounds, markings
02/21/2002
SLIDELL, La. – It may be too soon to declare the ivory-billed woodpecker extinct, but an extensive 30-day search of the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area in northeast Louisiana turned up no conclusive evidence of its existence, the searchers said in a news conference Wednesday.
Glynn Wilson is a free-lance writer based in New Orleans.
Members of the search team say they found some signs that America's largest and rarest woodpecker may still be around. They cited evidence such as sounds that could be attributed to ivory-bills and distinctive markings on trees.
"This is not looking for a needle in a haystack. This is looking for a moving needle in a haystack," said Dr. James Van Remsen, noting that birds move around to feed and nest in the thousands of acres of bottomland forest in the area.
Dr. Van Remsen, curator of birds at the Museum of Natural Science at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, organized the search.
Several participants in the search heard and recorded a series of distinctive taps on an unidentified hardwood tree one clear, windless afternoon in January. But it was not accompanied by the high-pitched, trumpet-like call of the ivory-bill.
After listening to the recording, Dr. Remsen said the sound could have been a signal tap by an ivory-bill. "I have never heard [the pileated woodpecker] make a sound that came close to this in terms of both power and rhythm," he said.
The search team discovered concentrations of tree bark scaling, the primary method used by ivory-bills in foraging for food. That method is also used by pileated woodpeckers.
All six members of the search team said in statements that they believe the ivory-bill may still be alive in the area based on the evidence, but they agreed that no definitive conclusions should be drawn without the physical evidence of a sighting or a photograph.
"Based on the evidence we did find, it certainly is possible at this very moment there could be one or more ivory-billed woodpeckers in the Pearl River area," said Canadian bird expert Alan Wormington, one of the search team and a member of the North American Birds editorial board.
Some members of the team recommended further searches, possibly in November or December. Officials of Zeiss Sports Optics said the company would decide whether to sponsor another search after sound recordings, which are still being made in the area, are analyzed.
