By Tim Binnall
Arguing that the ivory-billed woodpecker has not gone extinct, a research group have released a drone video that, they contend, shows the creature in flight. The intriguing footage was reportedly captured in 2021 and released last week by the organization Project Principalis, which is comprised of several experts who have been working alongside Pittsburgh's National Aviary in a years-long effort to prove that the bird still exists in some remote parts of the American southeast. The group's co-founder, Mark Michaels, submitted the video to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last month in response to the department's call for public comments regarding the possible extinction of the creature which was last seen in 1944.
Asserting that the video shows a "landing sequence when the bird is coming through a fairly open area," he marveled that "when I reviewed the footage, I jumped out of my skin — it's an ivory-bill." In addition to what the group believes is video evidence, Michaels also contributed a researcher paper which makes the argument that the animal has not gone extinct. The submission is the latest salvo in a somewhat contentious fight between those who believe that the bird is no more and others who insist that the creature continues to exist. While that debate has long-simmered in ornithological circles, it reached a boiling point last September when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed removing it from the endangered species list and declaring it extinct.
Last month, in response to what they described as "substantial disagreement among experts regarding the status of the species," the department announced that they had granted the bird a six-month reprieve from reclassification so that researchers could, once again, submit their best evidence and arguments for the animal's continued existence. That window of opportunity is what led Project Principalis to put forward their package of materials which includes the video which Michaels called "the clearest evidence to date of the survival of these elusive birds." An independent researcher out of Alabama also submitted a video of what he believes to be the ivory-billed woodpecker in the wild.
However, not everyone is convinced that the newly submitted materials prove that the creature still exists and, in a testament to the impassioned feelings on both sides, they were rather frank in their assessment. Mark B. Robbins, an ornithologist from the University of Kansas, lambasted the footage as "laughable" to the Associated Press and Brett Hartl of the Center for Biological Diversity, who mused that "there are better and more reliable photographs of Sasquatch floating around the internet than these images of this supposed ivory-billed woodpecker." The final determination will come from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sometime next year, though given the divisive nature of the debate, it wouldn't be surprising if they give the bird a bit more time to possibly be found.