RafaelMatias
Unknown member
So how many Ivory-bills are still out there? 100? 200? Are you acquainted with the concept of minimum viable population? I'm sure you are. If there are so few IBWO out there that no solid evidence at all can be obtained for decades, how would the species survive if some evidence could be gathered that one or so birds were still alive? At best you'd be documenting its extinction, the very last IBWO alive, just before the species went definitely extinct.
Finding 1 or 2 birds is not enough for anything. You'd need a population probably in the order of the hundreds in order for it to be viable. Especially so if the range of the (ghost) species is as large as some have been suggesting. Do you really believe hundreds of IBWO can be missed like that by all and everyone? And if there's a pair or two around, how is that biologically plausible.
All in all, this is a depressing subject, and I can only hope I'm deeply wrong.
Finding 1 or 2 birds is not enough for anything. You'd need a population probably in the order of the hundreds in order for it to be viable. Especially so if the range of the (ghost) species is as large as some have been suggesting. Do you really believe hundreds of IBWO can be missed like that by all and everyone? And if there's a pair or two around, how is that biologically plausible.
All in all, this is a depressing subject, and I can only hope I'm deeply wrong.