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Dodo |
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Perhaps the most well known ?extinct? animal next to the dinosaurs and ice age mammals is the Dodo bird, Raphus cucullatus. Done in by it?s fearlessness of man and the introduction of monkeys, rats, and pigs to it?s island home, the Dodo ?officially? disappeared from Mauritius in 1681. With it?s solitaire cousins surviving on Rčunion until 1750 and on Rodriguez until 1800. So it appears the dodo was dead forever, extinct. Or was it? An article appearing in London?s The Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that an Englishman vacationing in Mauritius spied a Dodo walking along the beach. A similar report appeared two years earlier, made by a Frenchman visiting Mauritius. It?s thought that these reports are either hoaxes or misidentifications of known birds, perhaps the giant petrel. It?s also reported from the people of Mauritius that Dodo like birds can be seen at dusk and at dawn along the beaches of a secluded rainforest known as Plain Champagne. Nevertheless, the likelihood of even a few Dodo?s escaping a hungry sailors stomach or the infectious rats is remotely slim. For any of the three major islands in the Mascarenes group at least. There are a number of minor Mascarenes islands that are scarcely visited, some of which have never even been explored. These are the islands that living Dodo?s might just be discovered on one day in the future. Researcher Bill Gibbons intends to carry out a number of expeditions to the Mascarenes isles in search of the Dodo. To date none have been rediscovered. - entry provided by Matthew J. Eaton, matt@slowpokerecords.com
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