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Many sightings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) have been reported during the past several decades, but nobody has managed to obtain the clear photo that is regarded as the standard form of evidence for documenting birds. Despite reports of sightings by teams of ornithologists working independently in Arkansas and Florida, doubts cast on the persistence of this iconic species have impeded the establishment of a meaningful conservation program. An analysis of the expected waiting time for obtaining a photo provides insights into why the policy of insisting upon ideal evidence has failed for this species. Concepts in statistics and probability are used to analyze video footage that was obtained during encounters with birds that were identified in the field as Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. One of the videos shows a series of events that are consistent with that species and are believed to be inconsistent with every other species of the region. Another video shows a large bird in flight with the distinctive wing motion of a large woodpecker. Only two large woodpeckers occur in the region, and the flap rate is about ten standard deviations greater than the mean flap rate of the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus). Supplemental materials for this article are available online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the challenges in teaching short statistics courses by the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida from 1991 to 1994. Reduced state funding for education; Necessity of coming up with external sources of funding; Development of a program called `Week of Short Courses' which was used to generate additional revenue.

The housing unit (HU) method is often characterized as inferior to other methods for estimating the population of states and local areas. We believe this characterization must be challenged. In this article we evaluate population estimates produced by the housing unit method and by three other commonly used methods: component II, ratio correlation, and administrative records. Basing our analysis on 1980 census data from 67 counties in Florida and testing for precision, bias, and the distribution of errors, we find our application of the HU method performs at least as well as the more highly acclaimed methods of local population estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]