Stop Shooting Rare Birds and Watch Them Instead – Casson Living – World News, Breaking News, International News

Arthur Allen was meticulously packing his camera gear and personal belongings in his Ithaca, New York home. He was preparing for an expedition to the remote swamps of Osceola County, Florida, on a quest to find a bird many believed to be a phantom: the ivory-billed woodpecker. Most experts had declared it extinct, but Allen was determined to prove otherwise.

It was the year 1924, and Allen, a dynamic ornithology professor at Cornell University, was set to embark on a sabbatical. He was a robust, approachable man known for his bushy mustache, who enjoyed a great rapport with his students, affectionately referring to him as Doc Allen because of his engaging teaching style. Originally hailing from working-class Buffalo, New York, he had moved to Ithaca in 1904 to attend Cornell and had never left.

The ivory-billed woodpecker, notable for its striking black-and-white feathers, brilliant white bill, and yellow eyes, had captivated many before Allen. In the 18th century, English artist and naturalist Mark Catesby illustrated the bird for his seminal work, Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, published in 1731. The species also intrigued early 19th-century naturalists like Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon, who featured paintings of it in their publications. They collected specimens for artistic accuracy, which was acceptable at the time. However, as deforestation to create farmland escalated, critical habitats were destroyed, and numerous birds met their demise for commercial purposes, leading to the extinction of several species, most notably the passenger pigeon.

Allen was consumed by his passion for bird conservation, particularly focusing on species that were disappearing. By this time, the great auk, passenger pigeon, and Carolina parakeet had already vanished, and the ivory-billed woodpecker was assumed to be next. Undeterred, Allen planned to dedicate as much time as needed to explore Florida, aiming to study the elusive bird and capture its image. This journey would mark a pivotal shift in ornithology, transitioning from the collection of rare birds to efforts aimed at their preservation.

Before the year 1796, when French scientist Georges Cuvier introduced the notion of extinction, the idea that a species could vanish forever was unimaginable. Thomas Jefferson had once noted that nature’s economy did not permit any species to cease to exist. However, as awareness grew during the Victorian era, so too did the desire to collect specimens—often driving the rarest species to the edge of extinction. W.T. Hornaday, then the chief taxidermist at the Smithsonian, encouraged collection, stating that the time would come when many vertebrate species would either be exterminated or survive solely under protection.

The tragedy of this time was that even respected ornithologists took part in the devastation. William Brewster, a co-founder and early president of the American Ornithologists’ Union (now the American Ornithological Society), amassed a collection of over 40,000 specimens and hunted many birds himself, purchasing rare carcasses from fellow enthusiasts, including Arthur T. Wayne. In a letter to Brewster after a 1892 expedition, Wayne boasted of collecting 43 Bachman’s warblers (now extinct) and 13 “fine ivory-billed woodpeckers.” He even advertised in the AOU journal, The Auk, offering pairs of ivory-bills for sale, right next to ads for repeating rifles.

Naturalists were acutely aware of the ivory-billed woodpecker’s plight. “The probabilities are that [the ivory-billed woodpecker] will soon be extinct,” noted Charles Abbott in 1894.