Those years of engaging with the system for animal insurance

Mauritius is located in the Indian Ocean, an island country east of Madagascar in the east of Africa.

Historically, this place has always been a desert island without people.

Li Cixin opened his eyes, and what he saw in front of him was the green land.

At this moment, he was hanging upside down on the tree, and this time he turned into a bat.

No, to be more precise, it is a fruit bat, a bat that mainly lives by eating plant fruits.

Some fruit bats have a wingspan of up to two meters, which can be said to be the largest in the bat family.

Although fruit bats live on the fruits of plants, they are still nocturnal like other bats.

Fruit bats on the island of Mauritius are no exception.They hang upside down from trees during the day and go out to feed at night.

Li Cixin was hanging upside down among the branches, his mind was a little drowsy, and he called up the materials to read.

The dodo, an animal that I heard about when I was in school, has long since disappeared in the long river of history.

Even like the giant dugong, there is not even a complete specimen left.

The dodo only lives on the island of Mauritius, and it is also the earliest recorded animal that was extinct by humans.

It probably took less than 200 years for the dodo to go extinct from its discovery.

Because there is no complete specimen preserved, people can only restore its appearance through the paintings at that time.

Fortunately, the painting techniques at that time were relatively mature, and two famous paintings of the dodo were left behind, allowing future generations to glimpse the basic appearance of this species.

There are only three museums in later generations that preserve the remains of dodo specimens.

They are: the Natural History Museum in Leiden, the Netherlands, the Natural History Museum in the Irish capital, and the Natural History Museum in Oxford.

Once, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History had a complete specimen of the dodo.It's a pity that it was not well preserved for some historical reasons.

Even so, the remains of this dodo specimen are still the "iconic specimen" of the museum.Because it is also the only specimen that preserves the soft tissue of the dodo, it provides great value for future research.

At the same time, this specimen determined the approximate evolutionary direction of the dodo after the advent of gene sequencing technology.

It turns out that this "free-range chicken" who can't fly is actually a "pigeon".

The dodo comes from the big family of pigeons and belongs to the pigeon-type order-the dove family, which is the same family as the "cuckoo" we are familiar with.The official scientific name should be Mauritius dove.

Their ancestors migrated from Southeast Asia through South Asia to Mauritius about 1000 million years ago.

Because the island is rich in products and has no natural enemies, the dodo gradually lost its ability to fly.It became the largest land animal on the island.

It is also an example of being born in sorrow and dying in peace.

The name Dodo originally comes from Dutch and Portuguese, which means stupid and clumsy anyway.

This kind of contemptuous name is probably the first impression of the dodo bird by the people who discovered them at that time.

In fact, as early as the beginning of the 16th century, the Arabs and Portuguese discovered Mauritius.

The story of the dodo and humans began in September 1598.A merchant ship "Amsterdam" from the Netherlands encountered a storm at sea, the ship was damaged, and drifted with the waves to Mauritius.

After the crew went to the island, they were so hungry and thirsty that they discovered "free-range chickens" living on the island.

This kind of giant bird, which is nearly one meter tall and weighs 10-20 kilograms, can't fly, has no attack ability, and doesn't run fast.

There is no easier prey for the shipwrecked crew.They began to raise their knives at these silly-looking dodos.

After all, in order to survive, they have no choice but to fill their stomachs.

At first, the result was unexpected. The meat of the dodo was not as delicious as expected.In those people's descriptions, the meat of the dodo is old, old, and very greasy, which is really hard to swallow.

It stands to reason that such an unpalatable dodo should not be eaten to extinction.

Since the 17th century, more and more people have come to Mauritius.The cute, flightless dodo bird also ushered in a catastrophe.

Actually, the dodo may not be stupid.Later, through scientific and technological scanning, it was found that the brain volume of the dodo was no different from that of modern birds such as pigeons.

Also deduced from this, they may not actually be stupid.It is just because of long-term survival in a place without natural enemies that it loses vigilance.

At that time, the main place where the dodo lived was in the forests of southwestern Mauritius.

Plus they weren't tasty, so latecomers didn't eat them too often to fill their bellies.On the contrary, because of land development, the habitat of the dodo has been severely damaged.

The most important reason that eventually led to the extinction of the dodo, similar to the Jamaican hamster in the previous mission, was the invasion of alien species.

At that time, the colonists who came to the island later brought mice, cats, and dogs. These were not the biggest threats to the dodo, but the most powerful invasive species was pigs.

Pigs are huge omnivores that eat almost anything.Modern people think that pigs are cute and naive in the pigsty, and those who kill and eat meat during the Chinese New Year are regarded as synonymous with stupidity.

In fact, pigs are not stupid. Some people have done experiments and released domestic pigs back into the wild.As a result, it became wild in one or two generations, and it was better adapted to the environment than cats and dogs.

The white, fat and honest domestic pig has since become a long-toothed wild boar with bristly mane.

These greedy wild pigs have posed a huge threat to the breeding of dodos.

As a flightless bird, the dodo naturally reproduces on the ground, and its nest is also built on the ground.

In this way, the eggs and young birds are reduced to the rations of wild boars.

Under the ebb and flow, the number of dodos can only decrease.

People at that time also liked to collect rare and exotic animals. The specimen at Oxford University was a living dodo that was transported there in 1638.

The last recorded sighting of the dodo was in 1662.Also a Dutch merchant ship, a ship called "Amna" sank in the waters of Mauritius.

The surviving crew, Vickert and others, found a group of dodos on Amber Island next to Mauritius.

Vickert and others who survived by the dodo also became the last witnesses of the dodo.

Since then, this lovely animal has disappeared in the long river of history.They were never seen again.

Even an honest existence like the dodo bird still plays an important part in the ecological chain.

On the island of Mauritius, a plant called the giant olive tree almost disappeared because of the extinction of the dodo bird.

Because the seed shell of this plant is very hard, but the dodo bird can digest this shell and help this plant disperse its seeds.

Later, environmentalists found turkeys as a substitute, and the big olive tree was able to continue.

Ironically, after the dodo became extinct, its image has appeared in many modern movies.In this way, it became a cultural symbol.

After watching the fate of the dodo, Li Cixin clicked on the panel to see what the mission gene was this time.

Organize metal!

For the corresponding body structure, carry out metal transformation.Such as teeth, claws, hair...

Now there are ten mission genes in total: strength, speed, gigantic, self-healing, invisibility, infinite proliferation, strong corrosive liquid, longevity gene, biological slime glue, and tissue metallization.

Xiaobao: "Because the two crossings took too long and consumed a lot of energy, only six mission genes can be used for this mission."

Li Cixin: "Okay, then I choose...infinite proliferation, strength, invisibility, self-healing...longevity and tissue metallization. Let's start the transformation."

A day later, a huge fruit bat was hanging upside down from a large olive tree, which at first glance looked like a black leopard hanging from it.

If you look closely, you will find that the fruit bat's claws and exposed fangs have a strange metallic luster.

Li Cixin felt the strong sunlight, still hung up to sleep.

Until the sun disappeared on the horizon, dusk came, and he flapped his wings and flew into the sky.

At this moment, his wingspan was a full eight meters, and he looked like an invincible behemoth.Wherever it went, it brought a shadow.

The changes brought about by this new ability were beyond Li Cixin's expectations. He did not expect that after metallization, his weight would actually decrease.

These claws and fangs, which can be said to cut iron like mud, are special alloys with lighter weight.

Even the tiny hairs on his body have been changed.The usual dawdling could not hurt his thin wing membrane at all.

With excellent eyesight, Li Cixin quickly found the dodos in the forest. This is a family of dodos, two adults and several young birds are resting.

With a chubby body, it doesn't look very smart.Seeing Li Cixin's arrival, he just looked at him, showing no sign of running away.

"What time is it?" Li Cixin asked while hanging upside down from a nearby tree.

Xiaobao: "There are still 20 years before the Dodo officially meets humans."

"That is to say, it is now 1578... something must be done in these five years... Xiao Bao, do fruit bats have to be active at night?"

Xiaobao: "Fruit bats also have the ability to be active during the day, but almost all bats are nocturnal, and fruit bats are no exception. It's just that fruit bats have good vision and hearing.

As for why they choose to go out at night, there are many reasons. One is to avoid competition with birds; the other is to avoid natural enemies; It is easier to keep life safe at night. "

"So that's the case, then these 20 years can't be wasted."

A plan emerged in Li Cixin's mind.

That night, he decided to turn his routine around and force himself to sleep at night.

The next day, when the sun rose, he began to fly in the forest, dodging all kinds of obstacles at high speed, and his huge body didn't even have any impact.

A pair of big eyes are distracted on the ground, looking for the dodo.

He didn't hide, and went directly to a dodo bird.It froze in place with fright.

Li Cixin hated iron and thought: "Why don't you run away?"

He slapped it to the ground with his own membrane wings, and the guy started squawking, but he still didn't run.

After struggling to get up, he still looked at Li Cixin where he was, as if saying: Why are you pushing me?

Li Cixin: ……………

After a while, a few dodos were attracted by its noisy calls.They all looked at the giant fruit bat in front of them curiously, as if they were whispering...

Li Cixin: ...

He thought to himself: "Looks like it's time for a heavy hand!"

Using the little claws on his membranous wings, Li Cixin stepped forward and scratched the dodo fiercely.Then, drops of blood dripped to the ground like threaded pearls.

At this moment, the dodo knew it was in pain, and began to panic, and ran away.Although I started running, I couldn't run fast at all because I was fat and didn't exercise all the year round.

But the effect he expected finally came out, Li Cixin nodded in satisfaction, it was not in vain for him to reverse his work and rest.

The next few dodos were all scratched by Li Cixin's "cruel and inhumane", but his claws were slightly severe, and they were all skin traumas.

Besides, after letting them run, Li Cixin immediately caught up and used the system to heal their small wounds.

Then scratch again, cure again, chase again, reciprocating cycle.

In the next month, the dodos on the whole island were scourged by him.When they see fruit bats coming, they run away.

This is Li Cixin's stupid method. Instead of relying on himself to fight against colonists and invasive species, it is better to let them increase their own escape methods.Blacksmith need its own hardware!

In the following days, Li Cixin thought of another idea, to train the dodo's sense of crisis.

Grass man!