-- April 1999 (Back to Pearl River) --

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Those who doubt the Arkansas Ivory-bill claims, of course also doubt David Kulivan's sighting of 2 Ivory-bills at Pearl River in 1999. Kulivan was grilled more than any IBWO claimant prior to the AR. reports. To my knowledge NO ONE ever came away from questioning David thinking a hoax or prank even might be involved; indeed all interviewers were impressed with David's apparent sincerity and genuineness. So tossing out the likelihood of a hoax we are left once again with but one other possibility: mistaken identity.
David claimed he watched the 2 birds forage for several minutes on different trees from different angles, as close as 20 yards, and gave an accurate description of them as male and female Ivory-bills. I don't believe anyone familiar with the woods and Pileateds (as David was) could see 2 birds the size of Pileateds THAT close for THAT long and mistake them for something else. So we are left with 2 basic possibilities:

1. David saw 2 Ivory-bills (possibly just passing through the area -- IBWOs were well known historically for travelling in pairs), or...

2. David saw two Pileateds, but since his description was totally wrong for them, he must've ALSO been wrong (in my opinion) about how long he saw them for, and how close he was to them (sincere, but WRONG)... in short, almost ALL the pertinent details of his report must somehow be wrong, and yet not deliberately so (not lying).

Which is really more likely; that he crossed paths with 2 Ivory-bills, or that he is sincere but in error on all details of his report? (Those whose minds are already pre-made up beforehand may answer one way, and those who treat each and every sighting as a separate case to be reviewed on its own merits may answer another.)
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