The Illuminated Donkey

The intensive search for the believed-to-be-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker, covered at length in the New Yorker last March, hit a snag today when recorded sounds "reminiscent of the ivory-billed's distinctive rapping on dead wood" turned out to be distant gunfire. The recordings were made over a three-month period in south Louisiana's Pearl River Wildlife Management Area, and were the most promising lead so far in the extensive search. The ivory-bills were last seen in America 60 years ago.