{"id":32113,"date":"2023-09-20T15:22:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T13:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/03b35872-d95a-48f8-9b38-f08e00b004ed"},"modified":"2023-09-20T15:35:38","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T13:35:38","slug":"how-clever-were-dodos","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/how-clever-were-dodos\/","title":{"rendered":"How clever were dodos?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Stuart Blackman\n <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 20 September 2023 at 13:22 PM<\/p>

\n\n

CT scans of the brain cases of a dodo<\/a> and its close relative the Rodrigues solitaire, which is also extinct, reveal that \u2013 relative to their large bodies \u2013 their brains were on a par with other members of the pigeon family.<\/p>

\u201cI would imagine that their extinction had more to do with them being three-foot [0.9m] flightless birds, trapped on a small island hunted by hungry sailors, than any measure of intelligence or learning,\u201d said Eugenia Gold of the American Museum of Natural History, who led the study.<\/a><\/p>

The scans also identified unusually large olfactory bulbs \u2013 the region of the brain that processes smell.<\/p>

\u201cFlight navigation relies on visually inspecting the upcoming environment. This could override the expansion of the olfactory bulbs and keep them small,\u201d said Gold.<\/p>

\u201cHowever, since the dodo and solitaire could not fly, the birds\u2019 brains may have emphasised smell instead.\u201d<\/p>

Could the dodo come back from extinction?<\/a><\/p>

What is the most intelligent bird?<\/a><\/p>

Main image \u00a9 Getty Images<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stuart Blackman Published: Wednesday, 20 September 2023 at 13:22 PM CT scans of the brain cases of a dodo and its close relative the Rodrigues solitaire, which is also extinct, reveal that \u2013 relative to their large bodies \u2013 their brains were on a par with other members of the pigeon family. \u201cI would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":32114,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/09\/how-clever-were-dodos.jpg",623,502,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/09\/how-clever-were-dodos-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/09\/how-clever-were-dodos-300x242.jpg",300,242,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/09\/how-clever-were-dodos.jpg",623,502,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/09\/how-clever-were-dodos.jpg",623,502,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/09\/how-clever-were-dodos.jpg",623,502,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/09\/how-clever-were-dodos.jpg",623,502,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Stuart Blackman Published: Wednesday, 20 September 2023 at 13:22 PM CT scans of the brain cases of a dodo and its close relative the Rodrigues solitaire, which is also extinct, reveal that \u2013 relative to their large bodies \u2013 their brains were on a par with other members of the pigeon family. \u201cI would…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/32113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}