Don't be too quick to celebrate

The scientific article of the ivory-billed woodpecker tends to leave readers with a sense of joy and excitement due to the fact that the ivory-billed woodpecker, once thought to have disappeared from North America, was sighted in the wild in the year 2004. Truly it is thrilling to discover an individual of a species formerly thought not to exist, but we should not be too quick to celebrate. The authors of the article stated that they were unable to rule out the possibility that the ivory-billed woodpeckers sighted on different occasions could be the same bird. If this were to be the case, if only one ivory-billed woodpecker exists today, then certainly the extinction of the species is not far down the road. Even if there are multiple individuals, this study showed that the numbers are few and far between. Their numbers are so low for a reason; humans are adversely effecting the woodpecker’s usable habitat. If there are potential mating pairs this provides us with a second chance to fix our mistakes. We must correct the actions we so easily overlooked in the past, and be more mindful, not only of our effects on the ivory-billed woodpeckers, but on all species inhabiting the Earth.