The general public had no real grasp of the concept of species going extinct until 1796, and even then, their reaction was not what anyone today would expect. During the Victorian era, news that a bird species was in danger of going extinct made everyone want their own specimen. After all, rarity implies value, and no ornithologist or collector wanted to miss out on a chance to display a stuffed great auk, passenger pigeon, or ivory-billed woodpecker. Rare and exotic birds were also shot to provide feathers for ladies' hats. These actions drove species already suffering from lack of habitat into dangerously low numbers.
Cornell ornithology professor Arthur Allen was horrified at such behavior. He preferred to study living birds and help them to thrive. In 1924 he spent months in Florida looking for the rare ivory-billed woodpecker. Allen finally located a mating pair, but while he waited for the birds to nest, poachers took them. It was eleven more years before he found another ivory-billed woodpecker and took the photo you see above. Allen spent the rest of his life working to change the scientific study of endangered species from the philosophy of "collect them while you can" to protecting such birds. Read the story of how Allen changed science forever at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Arthur A. Allen, watercolored by Jerry A. Payne)
