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“Besides a cautionary tale, Woody’s Last Laugh illustrates at least 50 common, every-day mental shortcuts that don’t work, and how to recognize their traits and consequences... just a single point of uncertainty, whether a woodpecker was still living or not, could and did go on to trigger a host of serious cognitive errors and thinking fallacies in us….
“My book is among the first to expose cognitive derailment inside the environmental and conservation sciences, disciplines for framing knowledge that we normally consider less prone to such blunder. Yet across all human pursuits, mental mistakes routinely upset our need to find and apply reliable information. Human reason is fallible in science and conservation, too. Because we put up stiff resistance against ambiguity, we commit errors of thinking and action in order to achieve closure… None of us are immune from this cognitive bias, either. Indeed, several of our social identities and conventions tend to just magnify these errors in us.”
— from the Introduction to Dr. J. Christopher Haney’s book
Might as well start the new year off with something positive, like a new book!…
Mark Michaels called Christopher Haney’s recent volume, “Woody’s Last Laugh,” “the most important book on the ivorybill since Tanner,” which seemed like a bit of hyperbole when I first saw some excerpts and a couple of Dr. Haney’s video presentations… but after reading the volume over the Holidays, I agree (it is certainly the most unique Ivory-bill book in a long time, or, ever)… BUT with one possible huge caveat: it’s the most important book since Tanner if, If, IF, the Ivory-bill is eventually documented! — this book will go a long way to explaining the time it took, and the many ways scientists (and others) went astray. IF the IBWO is never conclusively documented, and 25 years from now the consensus is once again that the species went extinct in the 1940s or shortly thereafter, well, then this book may be relegated to the dust bin of so much other Ivory-bill commentary (even though as a historical and ecological account it still has great value). With that said, and as someone who majored in cognitive psychology in college, I do also enjoy this read simply as a text on cognitive science and critical thinking (important subjects these days, in their own right)… indeed, again, if the IBWO is eventually confirmed, I can imagine this volume becoming a text in some such college courses. It is all about the cognitive errors and biases we humans make in perceiving and analyzing the world around us.
Will get some (pragmatic) criticisms out of the way first… Unfortunately at 500 pages, some will avoid the volume as too long or intimidating… however many of those pages are copious chapter endnotes (which are, themselves, very worth scanning over, and offer an incredible treasure-trove for additional reading!); still, the main chronological text could probably have been organized better, written more succinctly, cut down somewhat (by a good editor), and succeeded at making the same points. It lacks a much-needed Index (big pet peeve of mine when missing). And I wish it was put out by a more major American publisher with better publicity and distribution. And finally, the title and cartoonish cover page unfortunately give the ‘feel’ of some sort of humorous, light-hearted book, instead of the substantive volume it is. (I might also mention that the title will falsely imply to many readers that the beloved cartoon character “Woody Woodpecker” was modeled after the Ivory-bill… he wasn’t, and Haney acknowledges this before book's end.) Some folks will ignore the volume thinking it too light-hearted and others will find its 500-page semi-college-text-like approach too burdensome. In short, it won’t reach the full audience it deserves. But both as an academic treatise on the IBWO (LOTS of historical/background info here as well) and as a discussion of timely issues in critical thinking more generally, I would encourage all to give it a whirl… and also realize that while Haney is largely critiquing deniers and skeptics, many of the points he makes cut BOTH ways; i.e. “believers” also suffer from cognitive lapses and biases (indeed, “groupthink,” “wishful thinking,” “cognitive bias,” "blind spots," and "cherry-picking" are among frequent accusations regularly hurled our way). So perhaps there is too scarce an application of “thinking errors” mentioned for believers, or for the current spate of evidence being offered by some as “proof” of Ivory-bill presence (with that said, though, Haney does at times voice harsh, maybe even overstated, criticisms of individuals and ideas across the board, and classifies himself as a bit of an 'agnostic' on the species’ current status, though “believers” will easily embrace him). Another interesting side-note that arises from time to time in these pages is the friction or rift between birders and academic ornithologists — yes, these are two quite different categories, even if not a clean split… though it must also be said that within each group there are certainly a mix of believers and naysayers (and furthermore, within both groups the majority are surely the latter). Overall though, I am truly gobsmacked by the sheer amount of historical, technical, speculative information and material Haney has compiled here, and thrilled to see someone bring together all these cognitive issues in one place. IF the Ivory-bill is documented it would be nice to see this volume shoot to #1 on bestseller lists! So hey, someone out there please make it happen! ;))
My favorite chapter (though it is hard to choose) may be Chapter 8 (“Curse of Small n”) which critiques the work/conclusions of Tanner (which is the foundation of so much skepticism), as I’ve long held must be done, despite the remarkable effort Tanner made as a simple grad student solely (and impossibly) attempting to fully understand the IBWO. Many of the other chapters as well pick apart ‘myths’ or expose contradictions in our purported understanding of this species. Chapter 9 (“Poetic License”) may be my least favorite chapter where Haney takes to task various semantic aspects that are pretty commonplace in most writing and argumentation — ironically, Haney himself plays a little loose with the language (I think) with his theme comparing the IBWO to Woody Woodpecker in its efforts to toy with or “fool” us, when its likely only intention is to avoid us and live out its life. The “Woody” analogy detracts (for me) from the seriousness of what this book is actually all about (I don't even know if 'Woody Woodpecker' is still relevant or familiar to upcoming generations?). Anyway, I also especially enjoyed parts of the final wrap-up chapter (“The Last Laugh”), as well as parts of the Afterword and 3 Appendices (especially Appendix 2) that follow — so don’t miss them. Also at the end comes a glossary of the 50+ cognitive flaws that become a bit of a blur through the text. A lot of the ‘cognitive psychology’ material is not new to me, but may hold special appeal to other readers less familiar with it. Every… single… chapter... makes points worth thinking about while also offering a breadth of rich information found in probably no other IBWO volume out there. Just chockfull of good stuff that may dismantle reader assumptions/preconceptions. Some of the arguments are disjointed or redundant in the way they reappear in different contexts through the volume, and Haney may overplay his hand a bit at times, but overall a monumental and innovative effort!… and from someone who's name, so far as I know, was not even previously associated with the whole IBWO debate.
I’ll mention that at the very end Dr. Haney lists a few books for “further reading” about critical thinking (definitely a thrust of the book), and I was disappointed at how short that list is (7 entries), given how voluminous his IBWO references are. There have been a slew of such books out in recent years (one favorite of mine is Daniel J. Levitin’s “A Field Guide To Lies” but there are many others), and this really is a topic area that ought, in my opinion, be stressed and taught in schools from the elementary level on -- cognitive aspects of language and semantics should be taught right alongside spelling, grammar, syntax!!
Dr. Haney, by the way, was also friends and college colleague with Bill Pulliam (now deceased), for the many of you familiar with Bill’s great contributions to the IBWO saga. Haney is the author of several books and papers, and you can read much more about his extensive, wide-ranging background here:
https://www.terramarappliedsciences.com/about-j-christopher-haney
If you want to get a jump on his ideas before you grab hold of his book, here are 2 podcasts he’s been on that give a sense of his approach:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iLbbzWoEHM
Dr. Haney’s book came out in the same time-frame as Guy Luneau’s (David’s brother), “The Ivory-billed Woodpecker: Taunting Extinction” which by the author’s own admission is more “a feel good book, not so much a form of science paper.” I won’t discourage folks from reading Guy’s take, but will caution one ought do so with a hyper-critical eye and indeed accepting its “feel good” nature moreso than the “science” presented (which I believe suffers from some of the very cognitive biases Haney speaks of). I agree with a great many of Guy’s points and speculations though (in fact, by now, I’d almost wager some of them must be ‘truths’ in order to account for the Ivory-bill’s elusiveness!), but also think other statements/assertions are over-the-top and not so easily resolvable. The reason this controversy just goes on and on is, in part, because precision science in field biology is so difficult to do.
I’ll opportunistically throw in here one of my own long-ago speculations that Guy doesn’t mention, and no one has taken seriously (but I’ll stand by) which is that the IBWO has largely become a creature of the upper canopies, perhaps rarely in its lifetime venturing within say 30 ft. of the ground; nesting/roosting, foraging, mating, hanging out, well up in the forest skyline (at least in any areas that humans traffic) and largely out-of-range of clear human or camera sight (again, my feeble attempt to account for the scarcity of good sightings or photos over decades). Only Mike Collins’ tree-climbing technique (or a drone) might get a good view of such a bird… and ironically, the best evidence he puts forth is of a bird flying far below him (the so-called ‘fly-under’ video), not one at tree-top eye level. Anyway, I have fun imagining a species possibly learning to live its entire life in the treetops, detached from human interaction.
Finally, while skeptics no doubt tear their hair out at such further published tracts, I find it delightful and motivational that at this late stage, Ivory-bill books continue to emerge and press their case. Hopefully, the last one has yet to be written (...and in any event, I reiterate, read Haney's book!).
I’ll close out this post, on a Sunday morning, with a famous old quote from writer/naturalist Henry Beston in his classic, "The Outermost House":
“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
Amen….
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