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Q120 (IAS/1998) Environment & Ecology › Biodiversity & Protected Areas › Flagship species ecology Answer Verified

A tree species in Mauritius failed to reproduce because of the extinction of a fruit-eating bird. Which one of the following was that bird ?

Result
Your answer:  ·  Correct: B
Explanation

The classic case involves the tambalacoque or ‘‘dodo tree’’ Sideroxylon grandiflorum and the extinct dodo (Raphus cucullatus). Stanley Temple proposed that the tree’s large, hard‑coated seeds required passage through a large frugivorous bird’s gizzard (the dodo) to scarify the endocarp and enable germination; he noted a paucity of juvenile trees after the dodo’s extinction and tested germination by feeding seeds to turkeys. Historical and subsequent analyses link the tree’s decline to the loss of the dodo as an important seed‑processing disperser, making the dodo the fruit‑eating bird implicated in the tree’s reproductive failure.

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