The Hunt for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
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The Hunt for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
DATE AND TIME Thursday, 25 February 2010 / 815AM-945AM
SPEAKER(S) John Schaust
Chief Naturalist
Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc.
11711 North College Ave, Suite 146
Carmel, IN 46032
schaustj@wbu.com
SESSION DESCRIPTION
Follow one of history’s mysteries in the pursuit of the Lord-God Bird. John Schaust, Chief Naturalist for Wild Birds
Unlimited, will give us the background and updates on this “ghost bird,” the status of this species, and the hopes for
the future.
SESSION LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Understand the importance of keystone species in environment and sustainability as they relate to parks,
recreation and public lands management agencies
• Describe the natural history of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, the current status of this species what we can
learn from past resource management decisions that can help us to better manage similar species today.
The Hunt
“When the last individual of a race of living things
for the breathes no more,
Ivory-billed another heaven and another earth must pass before
such a one can be again.”
Woodpecker William Beebe, Ornithologist
Ivory-billed Woodpecker - Historic Range Campephilus principalis
“Not a common bird…but one that was commonly seen.”
- John James Audubon
Mark Catesby 1683-1749
Campephilus principalis
• Arrived from England in 1712
• “bill white as Ivory”
• Painting and description – 1731
• Linnaeus used his work to name
American Ornithology, 1808-14
Mark Catesby 1683-1749 Alexander Wilson 1766 - 1813
1
• Fled from Scotland – 1794
“The Lord God bird”
• Thomas Jefferson – 1803
• Meriwether Lewis “A majestic and formidable
species that might impress upon
• Wilmington, NC
the mind of the examiner the
• Nine volumes – 1808-1813 most reverential ideas of the
• Died in 1813 Creator.”
American Ornithology, 1808-14 American Ornithology, 1808-14
Alexander Wilson 1766 - 1813 Alexander Wilson 1766 - 1813
• Favorite Bird
• Collected in 1820
• IBWO Declining
John James Audubon 1785-1851 John James Audubon 1785-1851
Forests prior to
European
― I wish, kind settlement — and
the original range
reader, it were in
of the Ivory-billed
my power to present Woodpecker.
to your mind's eye
the favourite resort 24 Million Acres
of the Ivory-billed
Woodpecker…‖ 20 million acres lost
in 200 years
•Civil War 1861-65
•Chicago Fire 1871
2
Bird Collectors Bird Collectors
Over 400 IBWO specimens collected from 1880 to 1910 Over 400 IBWO specimens collected from 1880 to 1910
• Prominent Ornithologist, Museums, Taxidermist and • William Brewster – scientist collector – bought 61 IBWO – largest
Private Collectors collection of IBWO in world – willed to Harvard University
• Frank Chapman – Curator, American Museum of Natural History
• “Now is the time to collect!” - William T. Hornaday,
Chief Taxidermist – National Museum (Smithsonian)
“Good resolutions, like many other things, are much easier
to plan than practice.”
• A.T. Wayne – 1892-94 Florida – 44 IBWO collected
1935 Arthur A. Allen, Peter Paul Kellogg, George M. Sutton,
James Tanner, Mason Spencer and J.J. Kuhn haul optical
film and recording equipment into the Singer Tract by
mule to monitor Ivory-billed Woodpeckers.
Singer Tract
Mason Spencer 1932
Arthur Allen 1924
1885 range of the 1930 range of the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Camp Ephilus - 1935
Arthur Allen
3
James T. Tanner
Louisiana Singer Tract
1937 - 1939
Tanner searches
the South for the
Ivory-billed:
•45 Sites
• 48,000 Miles
4
J. J. Kuhn and Sonny Boy
Band # 365-27264
Singer Tract 1939
5
The Loss of the Singer Tract
•1926 – McIllhenny – 10 year lease for LDOC
•1936 - Arthur Allen consults Aldo Leopold
“I am the world
•1938 - Logging begins
expert on an
•1939 - 13 IBWO’s in Singer Tract (22-24 total) extinct bird.”
•1941 – Tanner finds 6 left - James T. Tanner
•1942 - Roger Tory Peterson sees 2
•1944 - Last IBWO sighted by Don Eckelberry
Biology of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
•Nomadic, following food resources
•One pair per six square miles
•Diet of beetle larvae, seeds, and fruits
•Often seen foraging in groups
•Monogamous in mating
•Cavity nesting birds (4”x 5”)
•Clutch Size: 1-6 eggs, averaging 3 eggs
•Life Span Estimate: 10–15 Years
Biology of the IBWO
IBWO Description
•20‖ tall, 30‖ wingspan
•White on top and bottom
of wings
•Large, triangular white
Hickory Persimmons ―saddle‖ on perched bird
•Red crest on males, black
crest on females
•Chisel-like, ivory bill
Sugarberry
•Bright yellow eyes
•White stripes on cheeks,
down neck, onto back
Beetle Larvae
•No white under chin Ivory-billed Woodpecker Pileated Woodpecker
Magnolia Pod
6
IBWO vs. Pileated
Above Below
Pileated
Woodpecker
Above
Below
Ivory-billed
Woodpecker
7
E. A. McIlhenny
According to legend, Edmund McIlhenny encountered a Mexican-American War
veteran on the streets of antebellum New Orleans. The ex-soldier, named Friend
Gleason, gave McIlhenny a few pepper pods collected during his recent travels in
Mexico. McIlhenny liked the peppers so much that he planted a few of them on
his plantation at Avery Island, Louisiana, and using their offspring he concocted a
fiery pepper sauce that he called "Tabasco." McIlhenny placed his first 350 bottles
of sauce on the market in 1868
Feb. 11,
2004
1971
George Lowery
1966
John Dennis
L
LSU Museum of Natural
Science
Last Photo – Cuba 1948
Florida - Lewis
Fielding 1950
Texas Recording - 1966
Bobby and Tim
Gene Sparling
on Cache River NWR Bobby R. Harrison Tim Gallagher
February 11, 2004 February 27, 2004
8
9
IBWO Sightings 2004
1. February 11, 2004: Gene Sparling sees and reports IBWO
2. February 27, 2004: Tim Gallagher, Bobby Harrison return
with Gene and see IBWO
3. April 5 - April 11, 2004: 3+ credible
reports
4. April 25, 2004 David Luneau video
5. June 9, 2004: Bobby Harrison
sighting David Luneau
Field Notes of Gallagher and April 25, 2004
Harrison after Ivorybill
sightings
10Auditory Evidence Science April 28, 2005
•IBWO vocalizations and drumming are important cues
More than 60 years
June 3, 2005 vol. 218, no.44
•ARUs (Autonomous Recording Units): at any given
after the last confirmed
time about 20 ARUs were deployed in the area
sighting of the species in
•Over 18,000 total hours of recordings analyzed by the the United States, a
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
research team
•54 ARU recordings of double-raps identified announced that at least
one Ivory-billed
Woodpecker still
survives in the
bottomland hardwood
forests of Arkansas.
459 Newspapers
174 Television Stations
43 Radio Shows
The bird heard ‗round the world
Gene Sparling Bobby Harrison Tim Gallagher
11Fig. 2. (A) and (C) show video frames (apparently frames 700 and 1000, although this is not stated) and
interpretive sketches from Fig
Fig. 1. (A) Frame 33.3 from (1), in which it is proposed that the black and white object to the left of the
tree trunk is an ivory-billed woodpecker positioned as illustrated in the inset sketch
D. A. Sibley et al., Science 311, 1555a (2006)
D. A. Sibley et al., Science 311, 1555a (2006)
Published by AAAS Published by AAAS
Fig. 3. Video frames on left, with interpretive sketches by D
Cornell Lab - Analysis of the Luneau video
D. A. Sibley et al., Science 311, 1555a (2006)
Published by AAAS
12Size of the bird:
Measurements of wrist – tailtip distances
measurements of wrist – tailtip distances
Allen 1935 film frames
Measurements of wrist – tailtip distance Amount of white on wing of perched bird
White plumage on back between wings
Wing pattern in flight
• Extensive white patches on the both sides
of the wing
• All white secondary feathers and
innermost primary flight feathers are white
13Fig. 1. Luneau video field 33.3 (A) shows the first major appearance of the woodpecker's right wing to
the left of the tupelo trunk
John W. Fitzpatrick,
Director
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
J. W. Fitzpatrick et al., Science 311, 1555b (2006)
Published by AAAS
Evidence Summary
Fig. 2. Effects of video artifacts on wing patterns of pileated woodpecker and ivory-billed woodpecker
1. Size of bird corresponds to IBWO
2. Wing pattern at rest
3. Wing pattern in flight
4. White plumage on the back between
wings
5. Black-and-white pattern of perched bird
J. W. Fitzpatrick et al., Science 311, 1555b (2006) 6. Wing beats per second – Pileated max is
7.0 per second – tape shows 8.7 per
second.
Published by AAAS
Search Strategy
• March 2004 – Present
• Systematic search for and
monitoring of potential roost
cavities
• Use of sound recording units
• Use of motion sensor cameras
on scaled trees
• Many hours of stationary and
mobile searching for the Ivory-
billed Woodpecker
The Search for Proof
14Bobby R. Harrison
Secondary evidence: Scaling
Paul Sikes - USGS
15The Search Expands
Choctawhatchee River – February 2007
1617
“I just seen that Lordy God bird this mornin”
•Population Surveys and Monitoring
•Habitat Inventory and Monitoring
•Population/Habitat Models
•Assumption Driven Research
•Landscape Assessment
•Conservation Design
•Education and Outreach
•Public Use and Access
•Management of Rediscovered Population
18Corridor of Hope Team
Ivory-billed Woodpecker Rediscovery Celebration
February 23-25 at Convention Center
in
Brinkley, Arkansas
1920
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