Dodo

The Dodo was a non flying bird that lived on the island of Mauritius, and stood about 40 inches tall. The Dodo nested entirely on the ground.

It became extinct only a few hundred years ago, in the late 17th century.. The extinction of the Dodo bird is directly involved in human intervention. Sadly this is not the only case of such animals being wiped out by our actions.

The Dodo, which had not come in contact with humanity, was supposedly entirely fearless of them, and this made it easy to use as a food or prey animal.

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The Dodo
The Dodo

Sailors reportedly clubbed them by the hundreds, and other humans brought in animals to the islands such as cats, dogs and swine, which would invade the area and disturb the nests of the Dodo.

The Dodo survived less than a century after its discovery by man.

Depredation of humans has also rapidly cut down other species on the island as well.
In a world where one species may well depend on the survival of another, the Dodo’s story is no exception.

A specific tree on the same island began to dwindle in numbers after the death of the Dodo.

It was found that only by passing through the intestinal tract of the Dodo was the seed able to germinate.

Fortunately since the tree was particularly slow to grow and mature, this was found out in time. A scientist found that by feeding the fruit to turkeys they could force the germination of the seed in a few cases and the trees began to grow, although slowly again on the island.

This should prove a lesson to us as a species.

Those things which we kill off today, by negligence or other means, may be the very thing upon which WE will depend for our own survival in the future and take a bit more care in our use of them.

Find out more about the Dodo over at Wikipedia »

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