You’ve likely heard people say As Dead As a Dodo at some point in your life well that phrase was inspired by The Disappearance and extinction of the dodo bird from Earth still being used as a phrase to describe the extinction of a species. The abrupt and unforeseen disappearance of this bird species teaches humans lessons about handling other vulnerable and unprotected animals that are likely to go into Extinction at any moment and the instability of the island environment and its primitive species that are already adapted to their different surroundings.
- The island of Mauritius the only place the dodo lived
- The dodo had no natural predators
- The secondarily flightless
- The dodo only laid one egg at a time
- Dodo doesn’t taste like poultry
- The nickelbar pigeon is the dodo’s closest relative
- The wallow bird
- The Dodo specimens are very rare
- The dodo was a character in Alice in Wonderland
- The DoDO it isn’t impossible for the dodo to be brought
10 Facts About Dodo Bird
1.The island of Mauritius the only place the dodo lived
At some point in the polyester scene period a group of pigeons lost their way and landed on the island of Mauritius dwelling on the Indian Ocean Coast situated 700 miles from the eastern part of Madagascar .They grew adapted to their new surroundings and kept evolving continuously thousands of years later this group of lost pigeons evolved into the flightless terrestrial three-foot tall dodo bird weighing around 50 pounds.
They were first seen by humans in 1598 when some Dutch Travelers showed up in Mauritius the dodo birds were last seen in 1662 before they disappeared fully 65 years later.
2.The dodo had no natural predators
The island the dodo took residence on was safe and free from all kinds of predators including harmful insects .The birds lived freely without any threat but all was not as Heavenly as it sounds without threats the dodo failed to develop a protective mechanism or defense as there was no need for it when the Dutch Travelers showed up .The dodos didn’t regard them with apprehension or fear they were just used to the easy life but while the birds were looking forward to cohabitating and adjusting to life alongside the newly arrived humans the Dutch settlers intended to hunt and kill them .They were used as meals for their dogs and monkeys as well .
3.The secondarily flightless
The dodo birds were capable of flying in the past and could possibly fly anywhere but a powered flight required a lot of energy and effort when they landed on the island of Mauritius the peace and calmness of their environment made flying useless and slowly they lost their ability to do so they were content to stay on the island forever so their bodies soon evolved their flying ability away. The term secondarily flightless can be used to describe the loss of flying abilities in Birds due to evolution secondarily flightless can be seen in Penguins ostriches and chickens as well .it can also be seen in Terror Birds the predators of Southern American mammals after the extinction of the Dinosaurs.
4.The dodo only laid one egg at a time
By the will of nature species produce as many offspring as will be viable to allow the species to continue to exist. However in the case of the dodo bird no harm came to their young and while most birds lay multiple eggs mainly in order to have at least one Offspring survives the lack of natural enemies drove the female dodo to only need to lay one egg at a time with no predators to disturb it the estimated gestation period of a Dodo is said to have been 49 days another important factor was that the dodo built its nest on the ground and surrounded it with grass .One man arrived and brought feral mammals along cats pigs rats lots of potentially hungry Hunters were now let loose upon the island and its formerly sole residence.
5.Dodo doesn’t taste like poultry
Considering how they were killed and butchered by the Dutch Travelers the dodo birds didn’t taste as nice as the hunters may have thought that they would during that time food was limited and there was not much to eat so the Dutch Travelers tried to cope with the food they had and ate the dodo birds to curb their hunger while using salt to preserve leftovers. The dodo birds lived on sweet fruits and nuts as well as other natural plants on their Island hence there was no reason to doubt that the meat of the dodo wouldn’t be tasty.
6.The nickelbar pigeon is the dodo’s closest relative
If the dodos weren’t odd enough a genetic test was conducted with the preserved specimen kept for observation .It was discovered that the Southern Pacific nicobar pigeons much smaller in size are the closest relative of the dodo birds still in existence .The Rodriguez Solitaire also among its relatives can only lay one egg at a time and couldn’t survive when a group of Travelers discovered them in the 17th century just like the dodo birds they are completely extinct .
7.The wallow bird
Over the past years there has been a lot of confusion regarding the real name of the dodo before its official name dodo which happened a few years after its disappearance many Travelers who came across them gave them a variety of names .The name wallow bird wild Vogel in Dutch was given to the dodo by a Dutch Captain while some Portuguese crew called it penguin which might have been a misrepresentation of opinion which means small wings present philosophers are still confused about the origin of its official name dodo and where it might have been derived from the name dodo probably came from the Dutch word dodor which means sluggard or from the Portuguese word dodo meaning crazy .
8.The Dodo specimens are very rare
The Dutch and Portuguese Travelers spent most of their time killing and roasting dodo birds but they did send a few of them off to England when they had the time the journey from the island to England took so long and the majority of the dodos couldn’t survive the trip currently only a few remains in the Oxford Museum of Natural History the University of Copenhagen and the national museum of Prague proved the existence of these great birds.
9.The dodo was a character in Alice in Wonderland
Another reason why the dodo birds are well known in most cultures aside from the general phrase As Dead As a Dodo as the bird’s brief appearance in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Where it performed in a caucus race many believed that it was a representation of the author himself Lewis whose original name was Charles lutwidge dodgson this was because he stammered and the first two letters of his last name correspond with the long-lost dodo .
10.The DoDO it isn’t impossible for the dodo to be brought
Back since the dodos have relatives like the nicobar pigeons with similar genetic makeup it might be possible to carry out a de-extinction process on the extinct species the extinction is a scientific process by which dead or extinct species are recreated and reintroduced to the world surrogate parenting might be possible since the DNA can be extracted from the little remains of the dodo and combined with that of its relative the nickelbar pigeons .However other species such as the woolly mammoth or the gastric brooding frog are much more suitable for the de-extinction process since the dodos are very complicated for a successful de-extinction process so what should we talk about next .
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Summary
The dodo bird, once thriving on Mauritius, became extinct due to human activities and environmental changes, serving as a cautionary tale for conservation.
