I don't think this can be topped, really.
(Photograph of a pair of stuffed ivory billed woodpeckers at the LSU Natural History Museum.)
Congratulations to Cornell University, The Nature Conservancy, the Fish & Wildlife Service, and the yeoman efforts of all those who made the (re-)discovery of this bird possible.
I'd say welcome back to the land of the living, but that's a totally selfish and anthropocentric point of view, innit? Fact is, they've never left the world. They simply had the sense to find somewhere on the continent that we were not. The fact that they've managed to stay in self-obscurity for so long is a testament to their adaptation to human encroachment and their innate drive to survive.
Let's not screw this up for them a second time, 'k?
If you're looking for somewhere to cast a few dollars, you could do much worse than The Nature Conservancy.
