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Seeking Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (Image 1)
The robotic camera system developed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Texas A&M University and installed in the Bayou DeView area of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas as part of a major effort to locate ivory-billed woodpeckers.
The robotic video system is part of a new project called Collaborative Observatories for Natural Environments (CONE) that is funded by the National Science Foundation (grants 05-34848 and 05-35218) to develop automated systems that can observe and record detailed natural behavior in remote settings.
If the researchers obtain conclusive photographic evidence of the woodpecker, it will settle a debate that has become heated in recent years. In the meantime, the new robotic video system provides detailed video sequences of other birds, suggesting a new, high-tech approach to doing field biology work.
To learn more, see the UC Berkeley news release Robotic Cameras Search For Ivory-billed Woodpecker, 'Holy Grail of Birdwatching'. (Date of Image: 2006) [Image 1 of 3. See Image 2.]
Credit: Photo courtesy Dezhen Song, Texas A&M University
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