Mauritius Dodo

[Mauritius][1] is an island in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Madagascar. In its isolation, many species developed that would be found nowhere else in the world – most famously, the [Mauritius Dodo][2]. Standing three feet high and unable to fly, how strange it must have looked to the sailors who discovered it! To Europeans it seemed stupid, a bird without the sense to run when humans came near and that laid its one, large egg on the ground without any precautions against predators. Of course, the dodo was not stupid. There were simply no predators on the island to guard against before the arrival of humans – and while the extinction of the dodo is often laid at the feet of hunters, numerous references to the disgusting taste of dodo meat make it unlikely that the dodo was hunted to its infamous extinction. At least – it wasn’t hunted down by humans, but by the creatures they brought with them. Rats, dogs, and pigs all contributed to the dodo’s doom by hunting their chicks or eating their vulnerable eggs. Less than 100 years after its discovery, the dodo bird was extinct. The dodo became famous as one of the earliest and most dramatic examples of extinction in recorded human history. Now you can bring the dodo back to life with a little bit of yarn and some stuffing – but remember, folks: extinction is forever. [1]: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=mauritius&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=5&ll=-19.68397,54.975586&spn=27.613579,51.020508&om=1 [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius_Dodo