 In 1973 , the tambalacoque , also known as the dodo tree , was thought to be dying out on Mauritus , to which it is endemic . There were supposedly only 13 specimens left , all estimated to be about 300 years old . Stanley Temple hypothesised that it depended on the dodo for its propagation , and that its seeds would germinate only after passing through the bird 's digestive tract . He claimed that the tambalacoque was now nearly coextinct because of the disappearance of the dodo . Temple overlooked reports from the 1940s that found that tambalacoque seeds germinated , albeit very rarely , without being abraded during digestion . Others have contested his hypothesis and suggested that the decline of the tree was exaggerated , or seeds were also distributed by other extinct animals such as Cylindraspis tortoises , fruit bats or the broad @-@ billed parrot . According to Wendy Strahm and Anthony Cheke , two experts in the ecology of the Mascarene Islands , the tree , while rare , has germinated since the demise of the dodo and numbers several hundred , not 13 as claimed by Temple , hence discrediting Temple 's view as to the dodo and the tree 's sole survival relationship . 
