GA4

Friday, April 01, 2005

DODOS - Living colony discovered breeding on Mauritius

A colony of Dodos has been discovered alive, and breeding, in a remote part of the Mauritian Ivory Forest, off the coast of Madagascar. A full report on this amazing discovery will be published in next month's Natural Eco magazine.

Douglas Adams used the Dodo as a prime example of a human-caused extinction in both his "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" and "Last Chance To See" books of course.
Team leader Gwen Arnesen said that rumors of such a colony surfaced last year when a team of local loggers found a number of broken egg shells in the area. Such shells are not unheard of, but it was their excellent condition which prompted further research.

"It really is the find of the century", Ms Arnesen said. "The remote location and hard terrain has facilitated the preservation of this 'Lost World' of Dodos. We believe the colony is some forty to fifty birds strong, with at least fifteen breeding females. We will now be working closely with the Mauritian authorities to ensure their protection."
And for further reading on the Dodo, obviously written before this stunning development, visit David Reilly's The Tragedy of the Dodo (1598-1681).

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Errr...April Fool's?

Or as they said when I was in Ireland, "Fool, Fool for the first of April!"
Harold

Gareth said...

Aw shucks! You spotted my little fib...

Anonymous said...

Damn. I was hoping I was wrong.

Where did you get "Gwen Arnesen"? I found someone by that name online, but there wasn't anything to indicate that she was trekking through the wilds of Mauritius.
Harold

Gareth said...

Harold: Mixture of a couple of people I know. Just a made up name.

Anonymous said...

It's much more effective now, post-AFD, when you're not as wary for pranks. (My initial response was 'YES!! DODOS!', only aloud)

Then you see the date. That was the only thing that kept me from hurriedly forwarding the page to friends who would be interested in this sort of thing (not that I won't now, but with different intent )

I, too, kinda hoped I would be wrong.

Nice one, though.

"I'm tha last uh da dodos" Dodo, to Porky
Pez001