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So it looks as if the dodo was better able to survive and defend itself than was originally believed.
因此，渡渡鸟看起来比人们最初猜想的更擅长生存和自卫。
Yet less than 200 years after Europeans first arrived on the island, they had become extinct.
然而，在欧洲人首次来到该岛之后还不到200年，它们就灭绝了。
So what was the reason for this?
那么，导致渡渡鸟灭绝的原因是什么呢？
For a long time, it was believed that the dodos were hunted to extinction, but scientists now believe the situation was more complicated than this.
很长一段时间以来，人们认为渡渡鸟是被猎杀到灭绝的，但如今科学家认为情况比这复杂得多。
Another factor may have been the new species brought to the island by the sailors.
另一个因素可能是水手们带到岛上的新物种。
These included dogs, which would have been a threat to the dodos, and also monkeys, which ate the fruit that was the main part of the dodos' diet.
其中包括威胁到渡渡鸟生存的狗，还有猴子，它们吃的水果是渡渡鸟饮食的主要来源。
These were brought to the island deliberately, but the ships also brought another type of creature-rats, which came to land from the ships and rapidly overran the island.
水手故意把这些动物带到岛上，但随船而来的还有另一种生物——老鼠，老鼠下船后迅速占领了该岛。
These upset the ecology of the island, not just the dodos but other species too.
老鼠扰乱了岛上的生态，不仅是渡渡鸟还有其他物种。
However, they were a particular danger to the dodos because they consumed their eggs, and since each dodo only laid one at a time, this probably had a devastating effect on populations.
然而，老鼠对渡渡鸟来说是特别的危险，因为老鼠吃渡渡鸟的蛋，而且由于每只渡渡鸟一次只产一个蛋，这可能会对渡渡鸟种群产生毁灭性的影响。
However, we now think that probably the main cause of the birds' extinction was not the introduction of non-native species, but the introduction of agriculture.
然而，我们现在认为，渡渡鸟灭绝的主要原因可能不是外来物种的引入，而是农业的引入。
This meant that the forest that had once covered all the island, and that had provided a perfect home for the dodo, was cut down so that crops such as sugar could be grown.
这意味着曾经覆盖整个岛屿、为渡渡鸟提供完美家园的森林被砍伐，以便种植糖等作物。
So although the dodo had survived for thousands of years, suddenly it was gone.
因此，尽管渡渡鸟存活了数千年，但却突然灭绝了。
