Sometimes, a moment of scientific discovery begins with a sound. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
Tom Schulenberg is an ornithologist at the Field Museum of Chicago and a member of the Rapid Assessment Program. Working together with Conservation International, the Rapid Assessment Program sends groups of scientists to wilderness areas to document the different species that live there.
“That’s the song of the Rufus Fronted Ant Thrush, a very rare species with a very small range in southwestern South America.”
Until fairly recently, the Rufus Fronted Ant Thrush was unknown to scientists. And then one day, ornithologist Ted Parker, who was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of bird song, heard an unfamiliar sound in the rainforest.
“He made a recording of this song, played that recording back and presently saw a bird that he had never seen before that no ornithologist had seen in over twenty years. He had rediscovered the Rufus Fronted Ant Thrush.”
Conservationists hope that discoveries of rare birds like the Ant Thrush will help underscore the need to protect rainforests and other biologically diverse areas.
“We can’t design a national park around the Rufus Fronted Ant Thrush. What we can do is try and find a large chunk of forest that would have sufficient habitat to protect a population of Rufus Fronted Ant Thrushes and also by so doing would have enough habitat to save hundreds and hundreds of other species of birds and thousands and thousands of other species of plants and animals.”
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.