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Once Mauritius was discovered by navigators, they also found that the island was inhabited by one of the Mauritius birds called Dodo.
The big stubby legs, short neck and incredibly thick pecker and curved gives Dodo a funny look. The heavy and chubby body is completed by a short tail, made of a feathers whisk. Since she has do enemies to be afraid of, she lost her flying ability.
This is a frequent phenomenon at the insular birds. While other Mauritius birds incapable of flying were tireless runners, the Dodo bird was moving jiggled, like a duck. Dodo’s brain was not very evaluated and the Mauritius birds were curiously looking at the two legs strangers going down from ships. The sailor men killed thousands of birds, put them in jails and made lamp oil from them.
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The rats and other animals imported on islands were ruining the Dodo’s nests. The exterminations of these inoffensive Mauritius birds happened so fats that the zoologist could not keep even one stuffed copy.
This bird would be utile for reproduction since her weight could reach 16 kg. On Mauritius Island, the zoologists saved more species of Mauritius birds. The Black River Ecartament National Park was restored and became the refuge for the obsolescent Mauritius birds called pink dove, Mauritius kestrel and the Mauritius parrot.
These birds saving are owed to the famous naturalist Gerald Darrell which was very active in the catching, saving and reproduction of the rare animals. The Darrell’s found made a titanic effort to save the species and to reproduce them. Only 10 copies of Nesoenas Mayeri (Pink dove) remained in wildness in the ‘60s.
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Due to the English and local zoologists activity, who made numerous efforts to save the specie, the actual population of these Mauritius Birds has more than 350 species.
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The doves are still suffering because of the beasts of pray, that destroy their nests as well as because of the lack of indigenous vegetation which they feed with. The Falco Punctatos (Mauritius kestrel) are other Mauritius birds with a tragic destiny. At this specie, the females and the males are painted like a common male kestrel while on the Seychelles Island the males and the females have the color of the common female kestrel. In the 70’s the population of these Mauritius birds had only 2 species in wildness and two in captivity. The ruining of the nests by the macaques and the DDT chemical action contributed to the population’s decrease. The zoologists made the impossible by restoring the obsolescent. For a pair of wild kestrel an alcove was made in rocks for nests, where the monkey could not get. They produced three generations and another two were produced by the captivity pair.
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Later, the zoologists took the eggs to place then in hatchery, replacing them with eggs without fetuses. Today, the Mauritius kestrel population has 800 species. This is an excellent example of saving Mauritius birds populations even in the most difficult situations.
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