Multimedia Gallery
Seeking Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (Image 2)
A close-up of 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 the famed ivory-billed woodpecker.
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 2 of 3. See Image 3.]
Credit: Photo courtesy Dezhen Song, Texas A&M University
Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.
Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.
Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.
Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (3.4 MB)
Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.