Text from NPR web site. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3D4622633 Jim Williams Wayzata =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Radio Expeditions Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Rediscovered Audio for this story will be available at approx. 10:00 a.m. ET
Morning Edition, April 28, 2005 =B7 A group of wildlife scientists=20 believe the ivory-billed woodpecker is not extinct. They say they have=20= made seven firm sightings of the bird in central Arkansas. The landmark=20= find caps a search that began more than 60 years ago, after biologists=20= said North America=92s largest woodpecker had become extinct in the=20 United States. The large, showy bird is an American legend -- it disappeared when the=20= big bottomland forests of North America were logged, and relentless=20 searches have produced only false alarms. Now, in an intensive=20 year-long search in the Cache River and White River national wildlife=20 refuges involving more than 50 experts and field biologists working=20 together as part of the Big Woods Partnership, an ivory-billed male has=20= been captured on video. "We have solid evidence, there are solid sightings, this bird is here,"=20= says Tim Barksdale, a wildlife photographer and biologist. For an NPR/National Geographic Radio Expeditions story, NPR science=20 correspondent Christopher Joyce joined the search last January along=20 Arkansas=92 White River, where a kayaker spotted what he believed to be=20= an ivory-billed woodpecker more than a year ago. Many other similar=20 sightings over the last 60 years have raised false hopes. But this time, Joyce reports that experts associated with the Cornell=20= Laboratory of Ornithology in New York and The Nature Conservancy were=20 able to confirm the sighting. They kept the find a secret for more than=20= a year, partly to give conservation groups and government agencies time=20= to protect the bird=92s habitat. The Nature Conservancy has been buying and protecting land along the=20 White and Cache Rivers for years, along with the state and the federal=20= Fish and Wildlife Service. Since the discovery, they've bought more=20 land to protect the bird.=
