Tonight I attended a zoom Audubon meeting featuring Dr. Sushma Reddy who talked about the birds of Madagascar. Since Madagascar is an island many species evolved in isolation. Although closer to Africa than anywhere else, only a third of the birds came from Africa. Another third came from Asia. She showed us genetic charts showing which birds are the most closely related. The pictures she shared show very exotic and interesting birds so now I would like to take an eco-tour of Madagascar some day. Human arrived on this island only 500 years ago. Unfortunately yet predictably, the arrival of human on Madagascar spelled the end of the line for the now extinct elephant bird. With eggs a full 12 inches long and 22 pounds in weight, one egg could feed an entire family. Some beaches on Madagascar are littered to this day with the broken shells of elephant bird eggs. Imagine seeing a bird that is 9 feet, 8 inches tall. Genetically the closest cousin to the elephant bird is the kiwi in New Zealand which makes sense because the kiwi also has very large eggs.
 |
| From the left, an elephant bird, an ostrich, a person and a chicken. |
No comments:
Post a Comment