Tap, Tap, Tap Turns Out to Be Bang, Bang, Bang

Researchers who thought tapping noises they captured on tape were evidence that a possibly extinct type of woodpecker still survives have been disappointed: The sounds were just gunfire.

The ivory-billed woodpecker has not been seen in this country for 60 years, but a Louisiana State University student’s detailed account of a possible sighting in 1999 raised hopes that there are still some around in Louisiana’s Pearl River Wildlife Management Area.

Last winter, Cornell University and Zeiss Sports Optics of Chester, Va., set out equipment to record swamp sounds for two or three months.

Captured on tape were a series of distinctive double-raps, reminiscent of the ivory-billed’s distinctive rapping on dead wood.

“Sadly, analysis of the ... data proved that the sounds were distant gunshots, with reverberations that sounded to human ears like drumming on a hollow snag,” Zeiss Sports Optics said.