What do dodo birds eat

The species became extinct so quickly that some people supposed them to be mythical. Using DNA evidence, scientists have determined that dodos are related to pigeons. The birds developed their large size and inability to fly as a result of living on an island where there was an abundance of food and no predators. Artists of the era depicted them with large heads, blue-gray plumage, tiny wings, sturdy yellow legs, a spray of feathers on the rear and dark bills with red hooked tips.

They grew to roughly 3 feet in height and weighed up to 50 pounds. One witness went so far as to describe it as grotesque.

Strickland and Melville, ; Fuller, ; Greenway, ; Britannica, Specifics about mating and incubation periods are not known. Several people have described the nests the dodo made as being deep in the forest, in a bed of grass. There, the female would lay one egg, which she would protect and raise. One sailor told about hearing the cries of a young dodo in its nest, which sounded "like that of a young goose. The sailors who landed on Mauritius found much amusement in watching the clumsy dodo's behavior.

There is a story one told of watching a dodo attempt to escape in a hurry. When it tried to run away, wobble may be a more accurate term , its belly would drag on the ground and slow him down. But for the most part, the dodo is described as a lazy, rather dumb animal. It had virtually no defenses against predators, except for its large beak which could deliever a "fearsome bite" if the occasion arose, such as a threat to itself or its young. Fuller, ; Strickland and Melville, Scientists thoughts on the diet of the dodo are based mainly on speculation.

Some sailors' accounts talk of watching dodos wade into water-pools to catch fish. They have been described as "strong and greedy" hunters. What really fascinated the visitors to Mauritius, however, was the fact that dodos seemed to eat stones and iron frequently and with no trouble.

It is now surmised that the rocks eased digestion. Strickland and Melville, ; Fuller, The main purpose dodos served to humans, in the brief contact between the two species, was as food.

The sailors frequently fed on wildlife from Mauritius while staying there, although it has been said that dodo meat was not particularly tasty. Still, they were hunted intensely, with sailors sometimes bringing back as many as 50 at a time.

What they couldn't eat right away they would salt and bring back with them. A few attempts were made to bring back a dodo alive. When this was sucessful, entreprenuers would capitalize on the unique looks of the bird and tour the dodos around Europe, displaying them in cages and demonstrating how the dodo could "eat" stones.

The first group of sailors believed to have arrived on Mauritius were Portuguese, led by Captain Mascaregnas, in They had intended to land on the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, but stormy conditions had blown them off course and they ended up finding respite on Mauritius.

Several other expeditions, Portuguese, Dutch, British and others, made stops at the island in the following years. In the dodos, the sailors found amusement and, when they were running out of supplies, food.

The Dutch colonized Mauritius in Along with groups of people, the ships brought cats, dogs, swine and sometimes monkeys. These animals quickly invaded the woods, trampling the nests and frightening the birds. These domestic creatures also devoured the dodo eggs and young. The interference of the foreign animals coupled with the continued overuse of the birds for food led to its total extinction by Strickland and Melville, ; Britannica, There are two speculations on where the name for the dodo came from.

The more accepted source is the Dutch word "dodoor" which mean "sluggard. Their close relatives, the extinct Rodrigues solitaire, lived on the nearby island of Rodrigues. Dodos existed nowhere else on the earth. This account only mentioned the consumption of fruit, but they likely fed on other sources as well. Scientists believe that, in addition to fruit, dodos likely fed on nuts, berries, roots, seeds, and bulbs.

Other relatives feed on shellfish and aquatic invertebrates. Because of this, scientists believe the dodo may have done so as well. Unfortunately for the dodos, human interaction was swift and merciless. The birds were unafraid of predators, including humans, which made them easy prey.

They also could not fly to escape, making them even easier targets. Invasive cats, rats, dogs, and crab-eating macaques continued the decimation. These newcomers targeted the birds, their chicks, and their eggs. Extinction occurred in less than years. There are a few accounts of live dodos arriving in Europe and possibly Japan. Only a few arrived alive, and it is unknown how long they survived once they arrived.

There are no surviving accounts of their care while in captivity. It can be assumed that these birds would require a fruit and nut-based diet, as close to their natural diet as possible.