After last spring's announcement that the ivory-billed woodpecker had been re-discovered, three ornithologists were unconvinced. They prepared a paper describing why, and it was about to appear in PLoS Biology in late July when it was withdrawn after two of the authors heard audiotapes that convinced them that the initial report was reliable.
The audiotapes and a 4-second video were shown last week at the meetings of the American Ornithologists Union in Santa Barbara. (I don't know whether the video shown at the AOU meeting is the same as the one associated with the Science article. You'll need to have QuickTime installed to watch the video associated with that link.) Two of the three authors of the withdrawn PLoS Biology paper are convinced by the audio evidence, but at least one thinks the video is of a pileated woodpecker, and one accepts neither the audio nor the video evidence.
This morning's New York Times (free registration required) provides more details.
Posted by Kent at August 30, 2005 7:10 AM | TrackBack