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As I stated earlier, this burd has survived for the last 60 years without our "protection".
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Not true; the sightings are within the protected Cache River National Wildlife Refuge.
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The bird has a lifespan of approx. 15 years, so it's definitely been breeding without any help from us.
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Breeding is not all or none. If the reproductive rate hasn't been keeping up with the mortality rate, then the population is heading to extinction. The "birds" sighted may be just a single male seen over and over again. Nobody has any idea how big the colony is.
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Why do we NEED to protect it now?
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It's a big bird. It needs big trees to nest in. Preferably decaying, so it doesn't kill itself trying to excavate a hole.
"Its disappearance coincided with the systematic annihilation of virgin tall forests across the south-eastern United States between 1880 and the 1940s," scientists said.