I believe that many people have heard of the dodo, as the first large bird that is extinct because of humans, the end of the dodo can be said to be very tragic, in the distant Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, there is a plump large bird, the adult individual body height of up to one meter high, the weight of nearly 30 kg, such as the ostrich, this bird can not fly, and the dodo bird for humans does not show fear, always willing to take the initiative to get close to humans, which lays the groundwork for its demise.
Dodo restoration
Before 1500, the island of Mauritius was not seen by Westerners, and the life of the dodo could be said to be very leisurely, but when the Portuguese and the Dutch came to mauritius and established a sea trade route here, the good life of the dodo could be said to be over. At first, only a small number of sailors passed through the island of Mauritius, and they came to the island not only for a short rest but also to replenish food, and to come to the dodo to have fun, and in the eyes of some people, the dodo was a very stupid creature.
The world's only surviving dodo soft tissue specimen
Later, with more and more people coming, especially after the Dutch colonized Mauritius in 1644 and brought a large number of cats, dogs and pigs and other animals, the living space of the dodo was greatly compressed, these alien species will eat the eggs and chicks of the dodo, coupled with the continuous predation of the dodo, in 1681, the dodo declared extinct, the dodo may be the most familiar extinct animal besides the dinosaurs, less than 200 years, humans can make a species extinct.
However, the dodo also has a relative
However, the dodo also has a close relative, the former has been used as a classic case of publicizing the protection of animals, in 2016 a complete dodo skeleton was auctioned for a sky-high price of 4.4 million US dollars, as a comparison of the latter even the name is not known to most people, and even if it is extinct, many people think that it does not exist at all, in obscurity, it also got a name destined for a lonely life - lone dove.
On the island of Rodriguez, hundreds of kilometers away from the island of Mauritius, there was once a close relative of the dodo, commonly known as the Rodriguez dodo, who was first discovered by a Frenchman named Lugua, who, for some reason, was exiled to Rodriguez Island with some companions, where he made detailed observations of the dove and drew a sketch of the dove.
Hand-drawn by lone dove
From this picture, it may be difficult to say that this is a relative of the dodo, because at first glance the two do not look like each other, but in fact both are descendants of the pigeon family, but they have evolved to become big birds that cannot fly. According to Lugua's notes, the bird feeds on plants and has a bullet-shaped bone tumor on its wings, a weapon they use to fight and make a sound when flapping their wings.
Their personality is very withdrawn, husband and wife only lay one egg at a time, and co-incubation, during the incubation of eggs they will be very vigilant, a little threat will fight back, this is still very different from the dodo, it is said that the male bird can reach 20 kg, and the meat is very delicious, which provides an excuse for hungry humans to prey on them.
According to the skeleton, use a computer-drawn recovery map of the dove
For a long time, people did not believe that the lone dove really existed, and even some people said that Lugua's notes were completely out of the blue, and there was no such bird in the world, and it was actually normal to have such a thought, because since 1790, some people have lived on Rodriguez Island for decades and have not seen this bird once, which at least shows that the lone dove has become extinct before this.
The wrist metacarpal bone of the lone dove, a large bone tumor can exceed 3 cm in diameter
However, people found some strange bird bones on the island, which just confirmed that Lugua was not empty nonsense, on these bones, people really found which bone tumor described in the notes, it grows at the end of the male lone dove's wing, the large one can reach 3 centimeters in diameter, according to a companion of Lugua, the lone dove is very loud when it stirs up the wings, and their muscles are also quite developed, although they can't fly, but the wings are long and powerful, and when fighting, the two bone tumors are like two small hammers. Once the opponent is hit, it is estimated that it is not a fracture or an internal injury.
Diagram of the skeleton of the dove
Unlike the dodo, the dove's personality cannot be described as mild, but this still does not prevent it from extinction, and like other pigeons, the dove has a sand sac that assists in its digestion, and they will swallow some small stones to help grind food, and the quality of this stone is so large that it has to wonder how they swallow it.
Battle of the Lone Dove with the background of the forest
A small number of live and specimens of the dodo left the island of Mauritius, but the dove did not leave Rodriguez until it became extinct, and interestingly, the captured dove soon went on a hunger strike and died, and in any case, they decided to stay in their narrow homeland until they died.
This article is from the mirror science, thanks for the support, a little attention not to get lost ~