Hi everyone,
My name is Catherine and I'm a bird keeper at Durrell Wildlife Park. It may only be April but the birds here have already started showing signs of breeding and some have even laid eggs. Some early starters even have chicks and have laid again ready to rear more young. One of the species of bird I work very closely with is the Pink pigeon. I'm sure you all know the bird in the picture isn't a Pink pigeon, but the dodo was a kind of pigeon, a flightless pigeon found only in Mauritius-the same place where Pink pigeons are found, and no where else in the wild.
It's very common to find species that are found only on one island of the world. If an animal is only found in one place, and that place suffers some sort of disaster-like the arrival of humans who kill and eat all the animals they find in order to survive, and then chop down all the forest so the animals have no home, then that species is in a lot of trouble and is in danger of becoming extinct-just like the dodo.
The Pink pigeon is thankfully, still with us.
What was potentially on its side in the early days when sailors found Mauritius and landed their, was that Pink pigeons apparently, taste dreadful! Unlike their cousins, the Blue pigeon. The tale goes that they tasted delicious and so were hunted to extinction.
There are so many fascinating animals that are no longer with us, that no person will ever see alive again. Woundn't it be terrible if there was something we could do today that could stop species going extinct and we didn't do it? How do we explain that to our children and their children after that?
Stay tuned for my next blog where I'll explain how my work at Durrell and out in Mauritius is helping stop the Pink pigeon going extinct.
Until next time.......
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