Ivory-billed Woodpecker Search Team to Discuss Findings, Next Steps at Science Museum of Minnesota

ST. PAUL, MN —September 26, 2005-- The Nature Conservancy and the Science Museum of Minnesota will host a special, sold out presentation of The Lord God Bird Lives, the Rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 29th at the Museum.

Long-thought extinct, the ivory-billed woodpecker was recently rediscovered in the Big Woods region of northeastern Arkansas some 60 years after in was last sighted. As the Search Team prepares to reignite its investigation for the bird, three key members of the team will present a detailed account of their findings.

“This was a landmark rediscovery,” said Ron Nargang, State Director of The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota. “Finding the ivory-bill in Arkansas validates decades of great conservation work and represents an incredible story of hope for the future. We look forward to the Search Team’s findings and its next steps.”

The event will feature a detailed account and video footage of the discovery from Gene Sparling, a naturalist and entrepreneur, who first spotted the bird while kayaking along that Cache River; John Fitzpatrick, Director of the Cornell lab of Ornithology. Moreover, the session detail conservation efforts critical to the ivory-bill's survival from Scott Simon, The Nature Conservancy's Arkansas State Director and key strategist for the protection of the ivory-billed woodpecker's habitat.

"The Science Museum is thrilled to host this presentation on the resurgence of the ivory-bill," says Dave Chittenden, Vice President for Education at the Science Museum of Minnesota. "We pride ourselves on bringing current science topics into the everyday lives of our visitors, and this incredible conservation story deserves to be at the forefront of all of our minds."

The largest woodpecker in North America, the ivory-billed woodpecker is known through lore as a bird of beauty and indomitable spirit. The species vanished after extensive clearing destroyed millions of acres of virgin forest throughout the South between the 1880s and mid-1940s. Although the majestic bird has been sought for decades, until now there was no firm evidence that it still existed. The elusive woodpecker became know as the Lord God Bird as it elicited gasps of "Lord, God, what a bird.

The Search Team’s findings include multiple sightings of the elusive woodpecker, frame-by-frame analyses of brief video footage and possible audio recordings of the bird’s distinctive double-rap drumming display. The evidence was gathered during an intensive year-long search involving more than 50 experts and field biologists working together as part of the Big Woods Conservation Partnership, led by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy.