Ellen Mitchell, age 12, of Shreveport, La., for her question:

Was the dodo an imaginary bird?

No, he was not an imaginary bird, but none of us will ever see a live dodo. For there are no dodos in the world today and there will never be dodos again. Their tragic story began long ages ago on the island of Mauritius off the eastern coast of Africa. In ancient times, this was the home of the dodos, who were distantly related to our pigeons, There were also dodo cousins on nearby islands,

Rough seas pounded at the rocky shores and blustery gales whistled over the land. The climate here was so rough that no bid d could take safely to the air. Any bird that tried to fly was either swept out of sight like a lost kite or dashed to pieces on the ground.

This poor flying weather took its toll of the dodo ancestors. Those that tried to fly did not live long enough to grow up and have children. Through the generations, the flying dodos were weeded out. Now, as we know, children tend to take after their parents. The only dodos that lived long enough to have children were those that stayed on the ground. And their chicks tended to be ground dwellers like their parents.

After countless generations for these things take a long, long time  no flying dodos were born at all, The dodos that survived specialized in living close to the ground. They were fat and lazy and their tail and wing feathers were fluffy as poodle curls. A fully grown dodo was twice as big as a goose. His strong bill was so big that his mouth looked like that of a dog. The dodos were safe from the wind and they had plenty of food. They also had few enemies, which is perhaps why they became so lazy.

Then the windy little island was discovered, Around 150, sailing ships put into shore and men arrived to see what was there. Of course, they discovered the dodo birds.

They discovered too that the meaty fellows were good to eat. And the dodos, poor dopes, were not smart enough to save themselves. The men brought pigs and monkeys to the islands and still the dodos made no effort to save themselves. Each dodo family produced but one egg at a time  both parents nestled on the egg and later worked together to bring up the chick. This means that the dodos did not multiply at a great rate, And, sad to say, the parent birds did not even know how to save their eggs or their precious chicks from the pigs and the monkeys.

The men did not realize what was happening  or perhaps they did not care. The rare dodo bird which had developed against hardships through countless generations, was being hunted out of existence. Finally, the dodo became extinct. The last one perished in the year 1681. Since the conditions which caused it to develop can never be repeated, there will never be dodos in the world again. No, the dodo is not an imaginary bird He is an extinct bird, destroyed by man’s carelessness!