Any time a creature
lands on the endangered
species list it is a loss and a challenge to the human
species. Many little-known creatures may go into decline
and vanish – the Eskimo curlew, the heath hen, the
blue pike – and we fear for such noble animals as
the gorilla, the snow leopard and, of course, the whale.
Some animals are famous for being extinct (the stegosaurus,
the passenger
pigeon), and then there are those that we just aren’t
sure about. Pre-eminent among the birds whose reports of
demise may have been premature is the Ivory-billed
woodpecker.
It is the largest
of all woodpeckers found in the United States and has been
nicknamed “The
Lord God Bird”, from the usual expletive uttered
whenever one appeared on the wing. The beauty of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker and its habitat overwhelmed John James Audubon.
But for more than eighty years the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
has been evasive in the woods and wetlands of the South.
The most thorough investigation of the ivory-bill was a
1935 expedition into the bayous of Louisiana led by Arthur
A. Allen, founder of the Cornell
Laboratory of Ornithology. The film, photos and sound
recordings from that field study became cherished reminders
of a bird that ornithologists feared was being lost. The
last sighting that was widely considered true and accurate
was in 1944.
But the ivory-bill
lives, and the adventure of its rediscovery is told in The
Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker,
by Tim Gallagher.
It is a story told largely in the first-person. Gallagher
is editor of Living
Bird, the Cornell Lab’s respected magazine, and
his admittedly obsessive quest could end up reflecting
unfavorably on the institution. Several ornithologists – and
amateur birders who often provide valuable observations
to the science – had earned the scorn of professionals
for even undertaking what seemed like a wild goose chase.
The last known
habitat of the ivory-bill was in Louisiana, but with reports
of sightings garnered from individuals of varying expertise,
Gallagher and his friend Bobby Ray Harrison, a professor
of art and photography at Oakwood College in Alabama, trudged
through the snake-infested swamps of the Cache
River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. They finally
did spot the elusive bird, but it would take further investigation
with scientific instruments and the involvement of other
research institutions working as the Big
Woods Partnership before Tim and Bobby’s sightings
were fully accepted. There has been worldwide acclaim and
in Arkansas the research continues (along with a bit of
tourist development).
Tim Gallagher
joins Bill Jaker on
OFF THE PAGE to recount his often-harrowing adventures
in search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the move to
allow this impressive bird to survive.
Listen to the program
now
in RealAudio© format
(requires free RealAudio© player)
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