Woodpecker
The Case of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker:
The Scientific Process and How It Relates to Everyday Life* by Kathrin Stanger-Hall, Plant Biology, University of Georgia at Athens
Jennifer Merriam, Biology, SUNY Orange
Ruth Ann Greuling, Office of the Provost, Northern New Mexico College
Part I—Background
Brad Murky, a graduate student in conservation biology at Cornell University, had been involved for nearly a year in a highly secretive research project taking place in the tupelo swamp of the Cache National Wildlife Refuge in
Arkansas. In the early th century the eastern Arkansas forests were heavily logged to remove most of the large, old trees for timber. Along with the trees went one of the most majestic of all birds found in Arkansas, a bird so impressive that people exclaimed “Lord God” when they saw it fly. Now and again reports of the bird were made but dismissed as rumors. But now, Brad’s efforts and those of his mentors had paid off, yielding a huge discovery—a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird not documented in North America since . The elusive bird had been captured on video a year earlier, and his team had decided that they now had enough evidence to go public. Brad’s elation was unrestrained as he envisioned the history he and his team were making.
Those jubilant feelings, however, had been invaded by a trace of doubt that was increasingly bothering him. Brad stared vacantly at the camera lights for the upcoming press conference and thought back to the email exchange of the past two days between him and his sister Mary.
Question
. What evidence would convince you that the Ivorybilled Woodpecker is not extinct?
* This case study is fiction. Though based on events that took place in , the scenario presented here is the creation of the authors.
The main characters in this story and their opinions are fictional, but the presented evidence and the discussion points are authentic and were extracted from published articles in the scientific
The Scientific Process and How It Relates to Everyday Life* by Kathrin Stanger-Hall, Plant Biology, University of Georgia at Athens
Jennifer Merriam, Biology, SUNY Orange
Ruth Ann Greuling, Office of the Provost, Northern New Mexico College
Part I—Background
Brad Murky, a graduate student in conservation biology at Cornell University, had been involved for nearly a year in a highly secretive research project taking place in the tupelo swamp of the Cache National Wildlife Refuge in
Arkansas. In the early th century the eastern Arkansas forests were heavily logged to remove most of the large, old trees for timber. Along with the trees went one of the most majestic of all birds found in Arkansas, a bird so impressive that people exclaimed “Lord God” when they saw it fly. Now and again reports of the bird were made but dismissed as rumors. But now, Brad’s efforts and those of his mentors had paid off, yielding a huge discovery—a living Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a bird not documented in North America since . The elusive bird had been captured on video a year earlier, and his team had decided that they now had enough evidence to go public. Brad’s elation was unrestrained as he envisioned the history he and his team were making.
Those jubilant feelings, however, had been invaded by a trace of doubt that was increasingly bothering him. Brad stared vacantly at the camera lights for the upcoming press conference and thought back to the email exchange of the past two days between him and his sister Mary.
Question
. What evidence would convince you that the Ivorybilled Woodpecker is not extinct?
* This case study is fiction. Though based on events that took place in , the scenario presented here is the creation of the authors.
The main characters in this story and their opinions are fictional, but the presented evidence and the discussion points are authentic and were extracted from published articles in the scientific