Dodo

Dodo Birds (Raphus cucullatus) are a species of large, flightless pigeon endemic to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The species went extinct in 1662 but was brought back to life via cloning and temporal dislocation technologies by the Greene Foundation in 2006 it was one of the first animals brought back from extinction and revealed to the public alongside the Woolly Mammoth and Tasmanian Tiger.

Description

Dodo Birds have a greyish or brownish plumage, with lighter primary feathers and a tuft of curly light feathers high on its rear end. Their heads are grey and naked, the beak green, black and yellow, and the legs were stout and yellowish, with black claws. Their feathers are pennaceous rather than downy, similar to those of other pigeons.

Dodos are very large birds, 3 ft 3 in tall and weighing 46 lbs for males and 37 lbs for females but some specimens have been noted to reach 60 lbs. They are sexually dimorphic; with males having larger and had proportionally longer beaks with brighter colors.

Ecology

Dodos can live up to 40 years in captivity, Despite the common myth Dodo birds are very intelligent, having similar intelligence to crows and have been seen both in the wild and captivity using simple tools. Since Mauritius receives more rainfall and has less seasonal variation than Rodrigues, which affects the availability of resources on the island, dodos are far less aggressive than their relative the Rodrigues solitaire. The legs were robust and strong to support the bulk of the bird, and also made it agile and manoeuvrable in the dense, pre-human landscape and allowed them to run at up to 15 miles an hour. Though the wings were small, well-developed muscles meant they were not completely vestigial, and are used for display behavior and balance; flying pigeons also use their wings for such purposes. Unlike the Rodrigues solitaire however, they do not use their wings in intraspecific combat, instead they will use their large, hooked beak in territorial disputes as well as for defense against other animals

The preferred habitat of the dodo is the woods on the drier coastal areas of south and west Mauritius. But Dodos also live on the mountains. These habitats are dominated by tambalacoque and Pandanus trees and endemic palms. The near-coastal placement and wetness of the Mare aux Songes led to a high diversity of plant species, whereas the surrounding areas were drier.

Diet and feeding

Dodos eat a wide variety of foods, primarily fallen fruits, nuts, and seeds, but they also regularly consume bulbs, roots and even small reptiles, crabs and shellfish, like their relatives the crowned pigeons. As Mauritius has marked dry and wet seasons, dodos fatten themselves on ripe fruits at the end of the wet season to survive the dry season, when food was scarce. This fat-cycle of the dodo correlates with the fruiting regime of the palms.

The beak is able to withstand high force loads, due to a diet of hard food they also consume gastroliths or Gizzard Stones to break this food up. The dodo has a comparatively large olfactory bulb. This gave the dodo a good sense of smell, which may have aided in locating fruit and small prey.

Like related pigeons, Dodos provide crop milk to their young. Their large crops, which is used to add space for food, means they are able to produce large amounts of crop milk. The maximum size attained by the dodo and the solitaire is limited by the amount of crop milk parents could produce for their young during early growth.

Broad-billed parrot depends on dodos and Cylindraspis tortoises to eat palm fruits and excrete their seeds, which will become food for the parrots, like Anodorhynchus macaws depend on South American megafauna or Domestic Cattle in the same way

Reproduction and development

Dodos nest on the ground, making large nests of rotting vegetation that will hold the single egg they lay. After hatching both parents will care for the hatchling until matured, which can take up to three years

Conservation

Many endemic species of Mauritius became extinct after the arrival of humans, so the ecosystem of the island is badly damaged and hard to reconstruct. Before humans arrived, Mauritius was entirely covered in forests, but very little remains of them today, because of deforestation. The surviving endemic fauna is still seriously threatened. The dodo lived alongside other recently extinct Mauritian birds such as the flightless red rail, the broad-billed parrot, the Mascarene grey parakeet, the Mauritius blue pigeon, the Mauritius scops owl, the Mascarene coot, the Mauritian shelduck, the Mauritian duck, and the Mauritius night heron. Extinct Mauritian reptiles include the saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise, the domed Mauritius giant tortoise, the Mauritian giant skink, and the Round Island burrowing boa. The small Mauritian flying fox and the snail Tropidophora carinata lived on Mauritius and Réunion, but vanished from both islands. Some plants, such as Casearia tinifolia and the palm orchid, have also become extinct. This has posed an issue for reintroducing the species. as there is simply not enough room for both people and the native wildlife. But great efforts by the Mauritian government has been going on in an attempt to restore Maurtius's wild spaces so the Dodo Birds can return home again

Due to their ease of care in captivity, many zoos host Dodos in their collections. Including Green City Aquarium, Green City Zoo, Minnesota Zoological Gardens, Orca Point Zoo, San Diego Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, ZSL London Zoo, Auckland Zoo etc.