Dododex
ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion
DTG, firstly brain size is NOT a good proxy for intelligence, take this for example, a macaw has a brain the size of an unshelled walnut, while a macaque monkey has a brain the size of a lemon, but the parrot still has more neurons in it's forebrain, the part of the brain associated with intelligence, so even if it has a smaller brain, the macaw could still score a higher IQ than the monkey,
Plus, pigeons aren't idiots, there is substantial evidence that they are as smart as an average monkey if not smarter, just like their distant macaw relatives, in fact, pigeons brains are very similar to primate brains, albeit missing one thing, but they get around that handicap by concentrating their neurons elsewhere, and, obviously, you know that you are a primate, sure, you've come a long way from a macaque, but, honestly, most of the adaptations humans have made were useless, we have horribly weak little immune systems, our hearts fail at the slightest provocation, we get food poisoning from eating raw meat, we're pretty much naked compared to our primate ancestors, our tails are gone seriously, in any situation, three hands are better then two, we have silly teeth, I mean, really, look at the teeth of a mandrill, could a human crack open a coconut with their teeth? THAT IS A VERY USEFUL SKILL IF YOU'RE STUCK ON A SMALL ISLAND,
Sadly, humans are essentially favouring our "intelligence" which is diminutive to say the least, I mean,
would killer whales cause global warming?
Would crows have nuclear wars?
Would Komodo dragons bomb eachother over shiny yellow metal?
Would octopuses chop down ancient forests?
Would capuchins exterminate innocent, helpless species?
Would they?
The answer is, of course, NO. They would not OUR SPECIES IS AN OUTRAGE! Honestly I think I'm going to secede from this species!
JUST OUR EXISTENCE WOULD BE ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU QUESTION HOW WE'VE SURVIVED MILLIONS OF YEARS! IMAGINE WHAT VERY INTELLIGENT ALIENS MIGHT BE THINKING IF THEY'RE WATCHING OUR PLANET!, ACTUALLY, AS I'M SAYING THIS HERE, what happened to earth in the ARK universe isn't that far fetched, we could easily discover an alien material, be all OOOOH, SOMETHING ELSE TO POLLUTE OUR MIRACULOUSLY LIFE SUPPORTING PLANET WITH, and destroy earth fighting over the stuff. Anyway, enough pointing out Hyman's flaws
My point is, pidgeons are actually smart, so dodos are actually smart, plus, dodos did NOT go extinct for a good reason, they were wiped out by, guess what. . . YES YOU GOT IT, HUMANS,
Homo sapiens wiped out the dodos, the golden frogs, the passenger pigeons, the thylacines, even the seven meter long apex predator Varanus priscus and the great furred elephants of the ice age, and countless others, and has there ever been a moment of silence for the steller's sea cow? Or the Pyrenean ibex? Or the ivory billed woodpecker? Or the white rhino? Or the warrah? Or the great auk? I could go on and on, ALL of those, and many more, were exterminated by this species,
Dodo's extinction wasn't natural selection, IT WAS GENOCIDE
IN FACT, I will quote a reliable source
"the dodo was well adapted to it's environment"
~Poecilotheria metallica
(And yes, those are my actual feelings on humanity)
-PS sorry I trailed off into endless ranting about humanity, but it sometimes can't be helped,