2017-02-10 Fri

Like the Indian sub-continent is rich with cultural diversities, the Indian Ocean is also home to some unique and awesome flora and fauna. The dodo is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

The prey and the predator, the food chain or the natural fear and struggle for existence is very important for a species to survive! Unfortunately and ironically enough, the lack of predators led to the end of the dodos.

The complete isolation of this island let the Dodo Birds grow and evolve without any natural predators, and as a result the dodos were fearless of the people. This, combined with flightlessness, made them an easy prey. The island quickly became a stopover for ships engaged in the spice trade. Weighing up to 50 pounds, the dodo bird was a welcome source of fresh meat for the sailors. It was easier for the humans and other mammals to eat dodo bird eggs in the ground nests.

The closest living relative of the dodo is the Nicobar pigeon. And the word “dodo” is derived from Portuguese ‘doido’ meaning “fool” or “crazy”. The first recorded mention of the dodo was by Dutch sailors in 1598. Within 100 years of the arrival of humans on Mauritius, the once abundant dodo bird was a rare bird and the last dodo bird was killed in 1681!

Though extinct these bird is immortalized by its native island nation on banknotes! Several older banknotes of Mauritius featured the Dodo bird the flanking around the island’s coat of arms. The newly introduced polymer notes have the dodo as the watermark, with the newest issued notes displaying the bird as part of the note’s security window.

The extinction of the dodo within less than a century of its discovery called attention to the previously unrecognised problem of human involvement in the disappearance of entire species. The dodo became widely famous by the role it played in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and it has since then become a symbol of extinction and obsolescence.

There’s a lot to be learnt from our past mistakes! Many species have gone extinct, many are on the verge of extinction and many more endangered! It’s on us to save our planet and our fellow species.

Save earth!