News from the Natural World: A shipping vessel in Mauritius has accidentally found a lost colony of Dodo on a Mauritian island.
At 18:06pm yesterday morning a crackling radio broadcast was emitted from HMS Holocene in the Indian Ocean. The broadcast declared something seemingly impossible. The ship had been bound for Mauritius but a strong cyclone blew it off course. The ship lost all communication as well as steering capabilities. After drifting on ocean currents for 24 hours the ship ran aground on the uninhabited island chain known as ‘Cargados Carajos Shoals’. This Indian Ocean archipelago was 430km northeast of Mauritius and consists of a number of sandbanks, shoals, and islets.
Upon landing the crew leapt onto the beach, full of joy at reaching land. They tried to establish radio contact but did not succeed. On the first night, they heard strange bird-like squawks coming from behind the sand dunes near their camp. The next morning they set out to investigate. They couldn’t have imagined what they were about to find. Amongst a grove of palm trees, they saw a group of 600 large flightless birds. The birds stood about 1m tall and were plump & comical in appearance. They eyed the sailors with curiosity. They had a brownish-grey plumage and yellow feet. The head was grey and naked and they had a black and green beak. They also showed no signs of fear of the human sailors.
The sailors couldn’t believe their eyes and knew thought they bore an uncanny resemblance to the previously thought extinct Dodo of Mauritius.
Could a small long lost colony of Dodo have survived 430km from the main island?
Could they have been the first people to have found the Dodo alive?
The Platypus has since verified the images and authenticity of the radio broadcast. We can confirm that the sailors have discovered a long lost colony of Dodo.
