Only on Aldabra

True! https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/environment/bird-that-went-extinct-136000-years-ago-comes-back-from-the-dead-after-evolving-again/ar-AABbnvo?ocid=spartandhp

Rising from the dead,

Darwin took a second look

as the sea receded and

birds re-colonised an atoll

in the Indian Ocean.

No  terrestrial predators

or competing mammals,

left the rail

to evolve flightless

for a second time;

Iterative evolution

in play.

 

10/05/19

Author's Note

Reviews

[Eilis]

I like the nod to Darwin in this. I think it shows that we have to be open to surprises.

If the natural world has taught me anything, it is that my expectations are often misguided. A really cool story to see highlighted in a poem, John.

I like the way you've offered it as a kind of interplay between the human and natural worlds. It acts as a kind of reminder that anything can happen.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Indeed dear Eilis that was how the story affected me. Many thank yous!

[andrew mitchell]

Funny without man’s influence, man’s intervention, man’s destruction and being without man, a lot of animals and plants will be better off. A million species of animals will be extinct in under twenty years.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Indeed so. They would prosper without us. Evolution at its purest. Thanks Andrew.