— 2024… A Notable Year —

——————————————————

There is so much historical information on the Web (including in prior years on this blog) pertaining to Ivorybill history and searches that I try to now avoid re-treading that material here, letting readers get it from elsewhere. But this is 2024, so worth noting that it’s the 25th year since David Kulivan’s 1999 La. sighting and the 20th anniversary (just passed) of the Gallagher/Harrison Arkansas sighting — perhaps the 2 pivotal events of the modern IBWO saga… almost a bit hard to fathom. 20+ years of hope, anticipation, letdown.

I don’t want to spoil the mood, but will yet again stress why the frustration of this saga proceeds… Somewhere (and likely multiple places) a large, loud species that must search for, and eat, food EVERY single day, must enter and leave cavities EVERY single day, must fly in the open EVERY single day, must (to still be with us) somewhere successfully breed EVERY single year since the 1940s, is somehow evading clearcut photography in a time of huge technological advances — evading even ONE indisputable photo in all that time (and no, it need not be crystal clear; the piss-poor quality of Fielding Lewis’s Brownie camera was adequate for I.D. purposes). You can slap all the numbers and measurements and analysis you want on other evidence, but it just won’t rule out all other possible explanations the way genuine video/photography can. 

For now, the question of the IBWO’s persistence remains for most scientists, but if ever finally documented, the far greater, more interesting/pressing question will be, WHY did it take so long… (most of us already have answers for that and the answers may pertain to any future conservation measures taken).

——————————————————