When Humans Extinguish the Wandering Turtle Bird, Who Knows What Troubles Will Await Us in the Future?

In 1681, the last wandering turtle bird died. After that, this animal was completely extinct from the earth. In the following centuries, people could only imagine its former appearance from paintings and photographs.

The most impressive wandering turtle bird appeared in the illustrations of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. After that, the wandering turtle bird seemed to have become equivalent to griffins and dragons in their eyes. In their view, the wandering turtle bird only existed in myths and legends, but in reality, this animal seemed to have never appeared in life.

The illustrations of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'

Although many people think so, in fact, the wandering turtle bird did exist. After all, the complete wandering turtle bird skeleton in the museum cannot lie. And the wandering turtle bird specimen stored in Oxford University can prove 'it once existed'.

From these remains, we can easily find that the wandering turtle bird has a strong beak and powerful hind legs. This also shows that the wandering turtle bird is not a stupid and heavy creature, but a strong and flexible bird, but it couldn't fly. However, it lived in Mauritius, where there were plenty of fruits for it to eat, so it could survive even without flying. In other words, the qualities of these birds were enough to adapt to the local environment.

So the question is, how did these birds become extinct?

This story began 80 years ago.

The Dutch Who Couldn't Fly

In September 1598, the Dutch merchant ship 'Amsterdam' was caught in a storm, so it was forced to dock at Mauritius Island. The shipmates had been drifting for many days and were almost dead of hunger when they stepped on the shore of Mauritius Island. When they stepped on the shore of Mauritius Island, they were like seeing a savior. They immediately looked for food on the shore.

The arrival of these people determined the extinction of the wandering turtle bird.

We usually conclude that these Dutch people arrived on the island and the wandering turtle bird population gradually decreased and eventually became extinct. Therefore, people began to reason forcefully that humans hunted wandering turtle birds for meat, which led to the extinction of this bird species. But is this really the case?

Many years later, paleontologist Peter Swoll found the ruins left by the Dutch sailors. However, after four years of excavation, he didn't find any wandering turtle bird bones. The large camp ruins only had pig bones and sheep bones.

So the question is, did people really not want to eat wandering turtle bird meat?

The wandering turtle bird will never be fully cooked

The Dutch sailors' diary from 400 years ago proved this. According to their records, wandering turtle bird meat was very greasy. Even these starving sailors couldn't swallow it. In addition, wandering turtle birds were very agile and had a lot of strength, it was not an easy prey.

If a prey is both unpalatable and difficult to cook, and also difficult to catch, then only a fool would hunt them. Moreover, there were plenty of edible plants and fruits on Mauritius Island, so people had no need to pursue wandering turtle birds.

So the question is, what caused these birds to become extinct?

You Don't Kill a Good Thing, But It Will Die Because of You

Although humans don't want to harm wandering turtle birds, the question indicates that

Although humans did not directly kill wandering turtle birds, humans' extinction of wandering turtle birds was also undeniable.To enrich their meat varieties, the Dutch brought a large number of livestock from Europe, with pigs and sheep being the first to be raised by the sailors on Mauritius Island. These livestock were kept in fences, and some escaped the control of humans and ran into the wild, becoming the 'new wild boars' on the island.

Julius Verne's novel 'Mysterious Island' recorded such a scene: the protagonists set off in a wooden ship to search for another drifting survivor at a nearby small island. On this island, there were wild pigs and wild sheep, but after careful identification, they found that these things were actually European pigs and sheep – they just escaped their masters.

Behind this fictional plot there is a realistic basis. On Mauritius Island, paleontologist Peter Swoll found many pig and sheep bones. These are powerful evidence.

These immigrants who followed humans came to the island. These four-legged immigrants became the terrifying enemies of the wandering turtle bird. The wandering turtle bird, which once reigned supreme on the island, was soon defeated by these fierce enemies. The mating behavior of male and female birds was severely affected, and bird eggs became the food of pigs. This once king-like terrestrial bird had to gradually shrink its territory and its population decreased sharply, and finally embarked on the path of extinction.

On the beach, only footprints remained

'You don't kill a good thing, but it will die because of you.' Whether it's intentional or unintentional, humans are the main cause of the extinction of wandering turtle birds.

Man and Nature

In order to survive, humans recklessly expanded and invaded the habitats of wild animals. In this conflict, many wild animals became extinct.

At this time, the human race that reigned supreme was like the wandering turtle bird that once reigned supreme on the island. When nature launched an Ebola, SARS and other viruses, humans almost had no counterattack. It was always a huge loss.

In the face of natural forces, human actions are like babies, so immature and powerless. When a crisis comes, the whole world is in chaos, unknown if they have ever thought about, the former wandering turtle bird also experienced a similar sense of despair?

I don't think so.

Humans in history receive only one lesson – they cannot receive any lesson in history. Everything now is just a replay of history, and there are no exceptions.

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