Cornell Researchers Enlist Robots In Ivory Bill Search

Researchers with the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology have deployed robotic cameras in their continued efforts to verify the presence of Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers in Arkansas. Ivory-Bills, long thought to be extinct, were supposedly seen by a handful of individuals in 2004.

While audio recordings of the bird's distinctive pecking have been made, the only video evidence to date has been too grainy to confirm the species still exists. So, high-tech cameras have been deployed within the Arkansas bayous.

The new cameras leverage special software to detect and record only special bird-flight characteristics. So far the effort is working, but only geese and heron have been photographed, to date.

The researchers are proving their cleverness in other ways, too. The devices need to be protected from random destruction by hunters. Rather than go to the expense of bullet-proofing the camera housings, the team merely placed radioactive hazard decals on the cameras.