Saturday, February 19, 2011

Dodo

True Wild Life | Dodo | The dodo was a medium-large sized flightless bird that was discovered on the Island of Mauritius in the 1590s and was declared extinct less than a century later, in 1681. Despite the turkey-sized body of the dodo, it is thought to have been most closely related to smaller birds such as doves and pigeons. The dodo inhabited the tropical forests on the tiny island of Mauritius that is situated in the Indian Ocean. Like the neighbouring island of Madagascar, Mauritius broke away from the African continent when the land first split, causing it's wildlife to be extremely unique and the dodo is no exception.


The dodo had a large body, stubby wings, a small, curved tail, short legs, and a large beak. The feathers of the dodo were grey, black and white in colour and the large curved beak of the dodo is one of it's most distinctive features. The dodo is a large sized bird that adapted to a life without large ground-dwelling predators, which led to the dodo to behave quite unusually for a bird. Despite having wings, the dodo was unable to fly as they were quite too small and weak to support the rounded body of the dodo. The dodo was also known to have been fearless of the European invaders which ultimately led to the demise of the species.


The dodo ate ripe fruit that fell to the ground, eating the fruit of the Tambalacoque tree (which is often called the dodo tree). This long-living tree is now in danger of extinction since it depended on the dodo for its own reproduction; its seed can only germinate (sprout) after going through the digestive system of the dodo (the seed has a very thick coating). In it's native forests on the island of Mauritius, the dodo had no natural predators until humans landed at the end of the 16th century. But it wasn't just the humans that hunted this friendly and docile bird, the dodo along with their nests where hunted by the animals that humans brought with them including dogs, cats and monkeys.


Due to a lack of natural predators, the dodo evolved to making it's nest on the ground where the female dodo would lay a single egg. The incubation period of the dodo egg is estimated to be between 4 and 6 weeks, when the dodo chick would hatch and be reared by it's mother before becoming independent as it grew older. The dodo was probably thriving on the tiny, safe-haven of Mauritius before it was taken over by European settlers who hunted and ate the dodo, exploiting it's naturally fearless nature. The animals brought along to the island often ransacked the dodo's vulnerable nests, leading to the extinction of the entire species in just over 80 years of human contact.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its amazing What they look like.
i wish i could see one for my self

Anonymous said...

I can't believe that! I wish they weren't extinct. :(

Anonymous said...

why are humans so stupid

Anonymous said...

The same is happening with the British Red squirrel since the Grey ones were bought over from North America.

It's very sad but I guess it's survival of the fittest.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe how many animals have gone exctinct just because of us!
-anonymous

Anonymous said...

Its just not right! I mean look im alive and well at the computer while other animals are washed off the face of the earth!
- Anonymous

Anonymous said...

Oh well, I do wish Dodo birds were alive.
-anonymous

Anonymous said...

i love dodos and i pray that some way some how those trees will not become extinct!!

God bless dodos and those trees!!

Anonymous said...

I feel for the dodos.

You know why?

Why?

The answer is simple.

WHAT IS THE ANSWER!!

The answer is.....

....becasue...

my mama went extinct....

....and...

...yo mamma....

is gonna be extinct tooo!!!


Hahahahahahahahahah!!!

Lol

peace out!! loove it!!

Anonymous said...

You don't respect the dodo birds. GET OFF THIS WEBSITE!! You have to respect the dodo birds to be on this website, so get off of it.


Peace out
Peace
Peace Love
Peace Love Dodos

God Bless the DODOS!!

www.dodogirl@savethedodos.com

Anonymous said...

dodo's rock! to bad there extinct

Anonymous said...

Fuck a stupid dead-ass dodo up it's dead stupid ass.

-God

Anonymous said...

They are beautiful birds, to me they represent what God want us to be humble, gentle, fearless,and peaceful.Like Adam and Eve before they sinned against God.But when sin came it destroyed mankind and bought forth dealth.So the Dodo died out because they were natrally and physacally harmless they had no one to defend them;and God aloud it otherwise they would exsist to day. But thank God for Jesus Christ,who died for our sins we have hope an eternal hope.

polyka said...

this bird is amazing. Oh, why it's die??

Anonymous said...

One day,the human race will be wiped out,and planet earth will be finally cured from his cancer !!

Anonymous said...

I think Dodos are quite intelligent because they adapted to an environment free of humans :)


Signed by
A Proud Fish :)

Anonymous said...

i don't want to say this but i think one day human race will change to another species.
example: dinosaur then caveman etc.........:-)

Anonymous said...

Dodos seen to be so sweet and they are cute sweeties why do we have to be so stupid!? i love dodos ♥ :'(

Anonymous said...

oh my god! i would love to see a dodo bird in real life face to face.i wonder why they call it dodo! AHHH not realy (;

Anonymous said...

We r like cancer.

Anonymous said...

True we are a disease. However we have hope. If we would all band together we could stop all this. Protecting the animal is fine but poachers don't care. If we are to prevent this from happening to other animals we have to strike the poachers and thair market. Problem is thairs not enough game wardens.what can we do?

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