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Posted by jnrosenthal on 22:57:57 01/23/07
In Reply to: Re: purported Ivory billed Woodpecker purportedly photographed posted by Bill Pranty
for IBWO skeptics-read this blog:
http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2005/09/ivory-bill-skeptic-home.html
believers might want to read these:
http://www.ibwo.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=2
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=33968
among them, thse sites have everything you could want to know(with links to the relevant sites) about the current state of IBWO searches, evidence, or lack thereof
Seems to me, as an interested observer, and as a lawyer, the burden falls on the believers to show beyond a reasonable doubt, that a bird(or reptile or mammal) previously considered extinct still lives. These days, and with the available technology that means an idisputable photo or video. I surely hope that such evidence will be forthcoming, but so far it hasn't happened. Even experienced birders make identification mistakes, and any courtroom lawyer will tell you that eyewitness identification is among the least reliable forms of evidence(witness all the DNA exonerations these past few years in cases with strong eyewitness testimony). That's why nothing less than photographic proof will do.
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