By Tim Binnall
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has put a six-month pause on their plans to classify the ivory-billed woodpecker as extinct in the hopes that someone can produce definitive proof that the famed bird actually still exists. The surprising reprieve follows an announcement by the department last September wherein they proposed removing 23 plants and animals from the endangered species list because they have seemingly gone extinct. The news was met with dismay among some bird enthusiasts, who insist that the ivory-billed woodpecker still resides in parts of the American southeast and it would appear that they made a fairly compelling argument to the department.
Noting that insights from the pubic regarding the proposed reclassification of the ivory-billed woodpecker revealed "substantial disagreement among experts regarding the status of the species," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week that they have extended the deadline to make a final decision on the bird's fate by six months. Over the next 30 days, the department will be accepting any "new information" which might dramatically alter their assessment. Specifically, they are requesting "clear video or photographic evidence of the presence of the ivory-billed woodpecker that can be repeatedly interpreted the same way by independent observers, such as definitive photographic evidence collected by a field observer."
In a manner akin to the Tasmanian Tiger, the possibility that the ivory-billed woodpecker may still exist has been the subject of considerable debate in scientific circles for decades. Last officially seen in 1944 and declared an endangered species in 1967, several expeditions in search of the bird have been conducted over the years with some researchers purported catching a glimpse of the creature and others capturing admittedly hard-to-decipher photos and videos of what may be the elusive bird. To that end, this past April saw the release of a fairly exhaustive study which made the case that the animal is not extinct.
One of many individuals who made their case to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service earlier this year was longtime researcher Bobby Harrison, who claims to have filmed the bird back in October of 2020. "I have been told unofficially it's probably the best evidence they've seen," he told an Arkansas media outlet. However, he conceded that "I am not presenting this as proof because it will not satisfy the skeptics." Be that as it may, Harrison hopes that the sheer number of reports that the department has received over the past year as well as any additional materials which may come to light in the next 30 days will be enough to persuade them to leave the ivory-billed woodpecker on the endangered species list rather than officially declare that it has gone the way of the dodo.