Who is the dodo and why did it become extinct? Life of extinct dodo bird reconstructed from its bones

Dodos, or dodos, representatives of the family of birds of the order Pigeonidae, lived on Earth about two centuries ago. The first scientific description of these birds appeared at the end of the 16th century. The first acquaintance of Europeans with the dodo bird dates back to the same time.

The first records of European travelers containing a description of a mysterious flightless bird were made by the Dutch admiral Jacob Corneliszoon van Neck, who visited the island of Mauritius in 1601. It was then that the scientific world of Europe learned about the existence of a hitherto unknown representative of birds. This is how van Neck described these birds: “... larger than our swans, with a huge head, half covered with feathers, as if with a hood. This bird has no wings. The tail consists of several soft, ash-colored feathers curved inwards...”

Of course, the captain was wrong when he thought that the dodo did not have wings. In fact, they had small, poorly developed wings. Birds often used them in fights with rivals. This is the description of the behavior of birds left by another European traveler, Francois Legat: “...they just fight with their wings and flap them, calling each other. These swings are fast and follow one another twenty or thirty times within 4 to 5 minutes; the movements of the wings create a noise reminiscent of the sound made by a kestrel. It can be heard at a distance of more than 200 m. The skeleton of the wing is more rigid in the outer part and forms a small round growth under the feathers of the bird, reminiscent of a musket bullet, which, together with the beak, is the main means of defense ... "

However, in other respects van Neck was right. Judging by paleontological finds, these were quite large birds. The body weight of dodos averaged 25 kg, and their height reached 1 m.

Dodo's beak appearance resembled an eagle. That is why scientists have suggested that dodos were predators that, like eagles or vultures, fed on carrion. However, this theory soon had to be refuted. Thanks to paleontological finds and a few descriptions, naturalists came to the conclusion that dodos were herbivores and ate the fruits of the palm tree, buds and leaves of trees and shrubs growing on the islands.

To hatch chicks, dodos built nests. They were built on the ground and insulated with leaves and branches of palm trees. The female dodo laid a single egg, which both parents took turns incubating for about 30 days. At the same time, both the male and the female took care that strangers - other dodos or predators - did not approach the nest.

According to modern scientists, the mysterious dodo birds became extinct due to the settlement of islands - the birds' habitats - by people. People have been known to bring their pets with them. Dodos could not survive in the neighborhood of pigs, dogs and rats.

In addition to the dodo, on the Mascarene Islands, due to human fault, such bird species as the Dutch pigeon, the Reunion gray-brown parrot, the Mauritian rail and the Mauritian blue-gray parrot, the Minerva owl, and the corncrake became extinct at different times.

Dodos were flightless birds the size of a goose. It is assumed that the adult bird weighed 20-25 kg (for comparison: the weight of a turkey is 12-16 kg), reaching a height of a meter.

The dodo's paws with four fingers resembled those of a turkey, and the beak was very massive. Unlike penguins and ostriches, dodos could not only fly, but also swim well or run fast: there were no land predators on the islands and there was nothing to be afraid of.

As a result of centuries of evolution, the dodo and its brothers gradually lost their wings - only a few feathers remained on them, and the tail turned into a small crest.

Dodos were found in the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean. They lived in forests and kept in separate pairs. They nested on the ground, laying one large white egg.

The dodo became completely extinct with the arrival of Europeans on the Mascarene Islands - first the Portuguese and then the Dutch.

Hunting for the dodo became a source of replenishment of ship supplies; rats, pigs, cats and dogs were brought to the islands, which ate the eggs of the helpless bird.

To hunt a dodo, you just had to approach it and hit it on the head with a stick. Having previously had no natural enemies, the dodo was trusting. Perhaps that is why the sailors gave him the name “dodo” - from the common Portuguese word “doudo” (“doido” - “stupid”, “crazy”).

Dodo(Raphinae) is an extinct subfamily of flightless birds formerly known as didinae. Birds of this subfamily lived on the Mascarene Islands, Mauritius and Rodrigues, but became extinct as a result of hunting by people and predation by rats and dogs introduced by humans.

Dodo They belong to the order Pigeonidae and have two genera, the genera Pezophaps and Raphus. The first contained the Rodriguez Dodo (Pezophaps solitaria) and the second contained the Mauritian Dodo (Raphus cucullatus). These birds reached impressive sizes due to isolation on the islands

The dodo's closest living relatives are the maned dove and the dodo dodo.

The maned dove is the closest relative of the dodo.

The Mauritian dodo (Raphus cucullatus), or dodo, lived on the island of Mauritius; the last mention of it dates back to 1681; there is a drawing by the artist R. Saverey in 1628.

One of the most famous and often copied images of a dodo, created by Roelant Severey in 1626

The Rodrigues dodo (Pezophaps solitaria), or hermit dodo, lived on Rodrigues Island, became extinct after 1761, may have lived until early XIX V.

Mauritian dodo, or dodo(Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct species, endemic to the island of Mauritius.

The first documentary mention of the dodo appeared thanks to Dutch sailors who arrived on the island in 1598.

With the advent of man, the bird became a victim of sailors, and the last observation in nature widely recognized by the scientific community was recorded in 1662.

The disappearance was not immediately noticed, and many naturalists for a long time The dodo was considered a mythical creature until in the 40s of the 19th century a study was carried out of the preserved remains of individuals brought to Europe back in early XVII century. At the same time, the relationship between dodos and pigeons was first pointed out.

A large number of bird remains were collected on the island of Mauritius, mainly from the Mare aux Songes swamp area.

The extinction of this species in less than a century since its discovery drew the attention of the scientific community to the previously unknown problem of human involvement in the disappearance of animals.

Rodriguez dodo, or hermit dodo(Pezophaps solitaria) is an extinct flightless bird of the pigeon family, endemic to the island of Rodrigues, located east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Its closest relative was the Mauritian dodo (both species formed the subfamily Dodo).

About the size of a swan, the Rodriguez dodo was highly sexually dimorphic. Males were much larger than females and reached up to 90 cm in length and 28 kg in weight. Females reached up to 70 cm in length and 17 kilograms in weight. The plumage of males was gray and brown, while that of females was pale.

The Rodrigues dodo is the only extinct bird for which astronomers have named a constellation. It was named Turdus Solitarius, and later - Lonely Blackbird.

The appearance of the dodo is known only from images and written sources of the 17th century. Since those single sketches that were copied from living specimens and preserved to this day differ from each other, the exact appearance of the bird during its lifetime remains unknown for certain.

Likewise, little can be said with certainty about her habits. The remains show that the Mauritian dodo was about 1 meter tall and could have weighed 10-18 kg.

The bird depicted in the paintings had brownish-gray plumage, yellow legs, a small tuft of tail feathers and a gray, unfeathered head with a black, yellow or green beak.

The dodo's primary habitat was probably forests in the drier, coastal areas of the island. It is assumed that the Mauritian dodo lost its ability to fly due to the presence large quantity food sources (which are believed to have included fallen fruit) and the absence of dangerous predators on the island.

Ornithologists of the first half of the 19th century classified dodos as small ostriches, shepherds, and albatrosses, and were even considered a type of vulture!

So in 1835, Henri Blainville, having examined a cast of a skull obtained from the Oxford Museum, concluded that the bird is related to... kites!

In 1842, Danish zoologist Johannes Theodor Reinhart suggested that dodos were ground pigeons, based on studies of a skull he discovered in the royal collection in Copenhagen. Initially, this opinion was considered ridiculous by the scientist’s colleagues, but in 1848 it was supported by Hugh Strickland and Alexander Melville, who published the monograph “The Dodo and Its Relatives” (TheDodoandItsKindred).

After Melville dissected the head and paw of a specimen kept at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and compared them with the remains of the extinct Rodriguez dodo, scientists found that the two species were closely related. Strickland found that although these birds were not identical, they had many common features in the structure of the leg bones that are characteristic only of pigeons.

The Mauritian dodo was similar to pigeons in many anatomical features. This species was mainly distinguished from other members of the family by its underdeveloped wings, as well as by the much larger size of its beak relative to the rest of the skull.

Throughout the 19th century, several species were classified in the same genus as the dodo, including the Rodriguez hermit dodo and the Reunion dodo as Didus solitarius and Raphus solitarius, respectively.

Large bones discovered on Rodrigues Island (now identified as belonging to a male dodo hermit) led E. D. Bartlett to the conclusion of the existence of a larger new species, which he named Didus nazarenus (1851). Previously, it was invented by I. Gmelin (1788) for the so-called. "bird of Nazareth" - a partly mythical description of the dodo, which was promulgated by Francois Coche in 1651. It is now recognized as a synonym of Pezophaps solitaria. Rough sketches of the rufous Mauritius rail were also erroneously assigned to new species of dodo: Didus broeckii (Schlegel, 1848) and Didus herberti (Schlegel, 1854).

Until 1995, the closest extinct relative of the dodo was the so-called white, or Reunion, or Bourbon dodo (Raphus borbonicus). Only relatively recently it was established that all of its descriptions and images were incorrectly interpreted, and the discovered remains belong to an extinct representative of the ibis family. It was eventually given the name Threskiornis solitarius.

The dodo and the Rodrigues hermit dodo were originally placed in different families (Raphidae and Pezophapidae, respectively) because they were thought to have evolved independently of each other. Then, over the years, they were grouped into the dodo family (formerly Dididae), as their exact relationship to other pigeons remained in doubt.

However, a DNA analysis done in 2002 confirmed the relationship of both birds and their belonging to the pigeon family. The same genetic study found that the dodo's closest living relative is the maned dove.

The remains of another large flightless pigeon, slightly smaller than the dodo and the Rodriguez dodo, Natunaornis gigoura, were found on the island of Viti Levu (Fiji) and described in 2001. It is also believed to be related to crowned pigeons.

A 2002 genetic study showed that the separation of the Rodriguez and Mauritian dodo "lineages" occurred near the Paleogene-Neogene boundary around 23 million years ago.

The Mascarene Islands (Mauritius, Reunion and Rodrigues) are of volcanic origin with an age of no more than 10 million years. Thus, the common ancestors of these birds must have retained the ability to fly for a long time after the disengagement.

The absence of herbivorous mammals in Mauritius, which could provide food competition, allowed the dodo to reach very large sizes. At the same time, the birds were not threatened by predators, which resulted in the loss of the ability to fly.

The earliest documented name for dodo appears to be the Dutch word walghvogel, which is mentioned in the journal of Vice Admiral Wiebrand van Warwijk, who visited Mauritius during the Second Dutch Expedition to Indonesia in 1598.

The English word wallowbirdes, which can be literally translated as "gaudy birds", is a carbon copy of the Dutch counterpart walghvogel; the word wallow is dialectal and cognate with the Middle Dutch walghе meaning "tasteless", "insipid" and "nauseating".

Another message from the same expedition, written by Heindrik Dirks Jolinck (perhaps this is the very first mention of dodos), states that the Portuguese who had previously visited Mauritius called those birds “penguins”. However, to designate the only spectacled penguins then known, they used the word fotilicaios, and what the Dutchman mentioned appears to be a derivative of the Portuguese pinion (“clipped wing”), apparently indicating the small size of those of the dodo.

The crew of the Dutch ship Gelderland in 1602 called them dronte (meaning “swollen”, “bloated”). From it comes the modern name used in Scandinavian and Slavic languages ​​(including Russian). This crew also called them griff-eendt and kermisgans, a reference to the poultry being fattened for the patronal feast of the Kermesse in Amsterdam, which was held the day after the sailors anchored off the coast of Mauritius.

The origin of the word "dodo" is unclear. Some researchers trace it back to the Dutch “dodoor” (“lazy”), others to “dod-aars” meaning “fat-bottomed” or “bumpy-bottomed,” with which the sailors may have wanted to emphasize such a feature as the tuft of feathers in the bird’s tail (Strickland also mentions its slang meaning with the Russian analogue “salaga”).

The first entry of the word "dod-aars" appears in 1602 in the logbook of Captain Willem van West-Zanen.

The English traveler Thomas Herbert first used the word "dodo" in print in his 1634 travelogue, where he claimed that it was used by the Portuguese who visited Mauritius in 1507.

Emmanuel Altham used the word in a letter of 1628, in which he also claimed its Portuguese origin. As far as is known, no surviving Portuguese source mentions this bird. However, some authors still argue that the word "dodo" comes from the Portuguese "doudo" (currently "doido"), which means "fool" or "crazy". It has also been suggested that "dodo" was an onomatopoeia of the bird's voice, imitating the two-note sound made by pigeons, similar to "doo-doo".

The Latin adjective "cucullatus" was first applied to the Mauritian dodo in 1635 by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, who gave the bird the name "Cygnus cucullatus" ("Cowled Swan") based on a depiction of a dodo by Charles Clusius in 1605.

One hundred years later, in a classic 18th-century work entitled The System of Nature, Carl Linnaeus used the word "cucullatus" as the species name for the dodo, but in combination with "Struthio" (ostrich).

In 1760, Mathurin-Jacques Brisson introduced the currently used genus name "Raphus", adding to it the above adjective

In 1766, Carl Linnaeus introduced another scientific name - "Didus ineptus" ("stupid dodo"), which became synonymous with the earlier name based on the principle of priority in zoological nomenclature

Mansur's 1628 painting: "Dodo among Indian Birds"

Since no complete specimens of the dodo exist, it is difficult to determine such features of appearance as the character and color of the plumage. Thus, drawings and written evidence of encounters with Mauritian dodos in the period between the first documentary evidence and disappearance (1598–1662) became the most important sources for describing their external appearance.

According to most images, the dodo had gray or brownish plumage with lighter flight feathers and a tuft of curly light feathers in the rump.

The head was gray and bald, the beak was green, black or yellow, and the legs were yellowish with black claws.

The remains of birds brought to Europe in the 17th century show that they were very large, about 1 meter in height, and could weigh up to 23 kg.

Increased body weights are typical for birds kept in captivity; The masses of individuals in the wild were estimated at 10-21 kg.

A more recent estimate gives a minimum average weight of an adult bird of 10 kg, but a number of researchers have questioned this number. It is assumed that body weight depended on the season: in the warm and humid period of the year, individuals became obese, in the dry and hot - on the contrary.

This bird was characterized by sexual dimorphism: males were larger than females and had proportionately longer beaks. The latter reached 23 cm in length and had a hook at the end.

Most contemporary descriptions of dodos were found in the log books of Dutch East India Company ships that moored off the coast of Mauritius during the colonial period of the Dutch Empire. Few of these reports can be considered reliable, since some of them were probably based on earlier ones, and none of them were carried out by a natural scientist.

“...Blue parrots were very numerous here, as were other birds, among which there was a variety very noticeable due to its large size - larger than our swans, with a huge head, only half covered with skin, and as if dressed in a hood. These birds had no wings, and in their place were 3 or 4 dark feathers sticking out. The tail consisted of several soft concave feathers of an ashen color. We called them Walghvögel for the reason that the longer and more often they were cooked, the less soft and more and more tasteless they became. Nevertheless, their belly and breast were pleasant to the taste and easy to chew..."

One of the most detailed descriptions birds were made by the English traveler Thomas Herbert in his book “A Relation of some yeares’ Travaile, begunne Anno 1626, into Africa and the greater Asia”, 1634:

Drawing made by Thomas Herbert in 1634

The French traveler François Cauche, in an account of his journey published in 1651, which included a two-week stay in Mauritius (from July 15, 638), left the only description of the egg and the voice of the bird that has come down to us.

“…..Only here and on the island of Digarrois (Rodriguez, probably referring to the hermit dodo) is born a dodo bird, which in form and rarity can compete with the Arabian phoenix: its body is round and heavy, and it weighs less than fifty pounds . It is considered more a curiosity than food; Even oily stomachs can get sick from them, and for the gentle ones it is an insult, but not food.

Its appearance evokes despondency, caused by the injustice of nature, which created such a huge body, complemented by wings so small and helpless that they serve only to prove that it is a bird.

Half of its head is naked and seems to be covered with a thin veil, the beak curves down and in the middle of it there are nostrils, from them to the tip it is light green mixed with a pale yellow tint; her eyes are small and like diamonds, round and rowling (?); her robe consists of downy feathers, on her tail there are three feathers, short and disproportionate. Her legs match her body, her claws are sharp. She has a strong appetite and is gluttonous. Capable of digesting stones and iron, whose description can be better understood from its image...”

“...I saw birds in Mauritius larger than a swan, without feathers on their bodies, which were covered with black down; the back is rounded, the rump is decorated with curly feathers, the number of which increases with age. Instead of wings, they have feathers the same as the previous ones: black and curved. They have no tongues, the beak is large and slightly curved down; the legs are long, scaly, with only three toes on each paw. He has a cry like a gosling, but this does not at all mean a pleasant taste, like the flamingos and ducks we just talked about. In their clutch they have one egg, white, the size of a 1 sou loaf, and a stone the size of a chicken egg is placed on it. They lay on grass, which they collect, and build their nests in the forest; If you kill a chick, you can find a gray stone in its belly. We call them “birds of Nazareth.” Their fat is a wonderful remedy for relief in muscles and nerves...”

In general, Francois Coche’s message raises some doubts, since, in addition to everything, it says that the “Nazareth bird” has three toes and no tongue, which does not at all correspond to the anatomy of the Mauritian dodo. This led to the erroneous conclusion that the traveler had described another related species, which was later given the name "Didus nazarenus". However, most likely, he confused his information with data about the then little-studied cassowaries, and in his notes there are also other contradictory statements.

As for the origin of the concept of "Nazareth bird", the Russian scientist Joseph Hamel in 1848 explained it by saying that probably this Frenchman, having heard the translation of the original name of the bird "walghvogel" ("Oiseaudenausée" - "nauseous bird"), the word "nausée" (nausea ) correlated with the geographical point “Nazaret”, indicated on the maps of those years near Mauritius.

The mention of a "young ostrich" taken on board a ship in 1617 is the only record of a possible juvenile dodo.

A drawing of a dodo head by Cornelis Saftleven in 1638 is the last original depiction of the bird.

About twenty images of dodos from the 17th century are known, copied from living representatives or stuffed animals.

Drawings by different artists have noticeable differences in details, such as the color of the beak, the shape of the tail feathers and the overall coloring. Some experts, for example Anton Cornelius Oudemans and Masauji Hachisuka, have put forward a number of versions that the paintings could depict individuals of different sexes, ages, or at different periods of the year.

Finally, there have been suggestions about different types, however, none of these theories has been confirmed. To date, based on the drawings, it is impossible to say for sure how much they generally reflected reality.

British paleontologist and dodo specialist Julian Hume argues that the nostrils of living dodos must have been slit-shaped, as shown in sketches from the Gelderland, as well as in paintings by Cornelis Saftleven, Mansur and works by an unknown artist from the collection of the Crocker Art Museum. According to Hume, the wide-open nostrils often seen in paintings indicate that the subjects were stuffed birds rather than live birds.

A ship's log from the Dutch ship Gelderland (1601-1603), discovered in archives in the 1860s, contains the only sketches reliably created in Mauritius from living or recently killed specimens. They were painted by two artists, one of whom, the more professional one, could be called Joris Joostensz Laerle. On the basis of what material, live birds or stuffed animals, the subsequent images were created, today it is not possible to find out, which harms their reliability.

The classic image of the dodo is that of a very fat and clumsy bird, but this view is probably exaggerated. The generally accepted view among scholars is that many old European images were obtained from birds that were overfed in captivity or crudely stuffed.

Dutch painter Roelant Saverey was the most prolific and influential artist of the dodo. He painted at least ten paintings.

His famous work from 1626, now known as Edwards' Dodo (now in the collection of the Natural History Museum in London). It became the standard image of the dodo and served as the primary source for many others, despite the fact that it shows an overly plump bird.

Almost nothing is known about the habits of dodos due to the paucity of information. Studies of the bones of the hind limbs show that the bird could run quite quickly. Since the Mauritius dodo was a flightless bird and there were no predatory mammals or other enemies on the island, it probably nested on the ground.

The habitat preferences of dodos are unknown, but old reports state that these birds inhabited forests in the drier coastal areas of the south and west of Mauritius. This opinion is supported by the fact that the Mar-aux-Songes swamp, where most of the dodo remains were found, is located near the sea, in the south-eastern part of the island. Such a limited range could have made a significant contribution to the extinction of the species.

A 1601 map from the logbook of the ship Gelderland shows a small island off the coast of Mauritius where dodos were caught. Julian Hume proposed that this island was located in Tamarin Bay, on the west coast of Mauritius. The remains of birds found in caves in mountainous areas prove that birds were also found at higher elevations.

Sketch of three dodos from the Crocker Art Museum by Saverey in 1626

“….These burgomasters are majestic and proud. They appeared before us, adamant and determined, with their beaks wide open. Brisk and bold when walking, they could barely take a step towards us. Their weapon was their beak, with which they could bite cruelly; they ate fruit; They didn’t have good plumage, but they had plenty of fat. Many of them, to our common joy, were brought on board...”

In addition to fallen fruit, the dodo likely ate nuts, seeds, bulbs, and roots. Dutch zoologist Anton Cornelius Oudemans suggested that since Mauritius had seasons of drought and rain, the dodo apparently fattened up at the end of the wet season, eating ripe fruits, in order to then survive the dry season when food was scarce. Contemporaries described the bird's "voracious" appetite.

Some pioneers considered dodo meat unpalatable and preferred to eat parrots or pigeons, while others described it as tough but good. Some hunted dodos only for their stomachs, which were considered the most delicious part of the bird. Dodos were very easy to catch, but hunters had to be careful of their powerful beaks.

They became interested in dodos and began to export live specimens to Europe and the East.

The number of birds that reached their destinations intact is unknown and unclear, as they correlate with paintings from those years and a number of exhibits in European museums.

The description of the dodo that Hamon Lestrange saw in London in 1638 is the only reference that directly refers to a living specimen in Europe.

In 1626, Adrian van de Venne painted a dodo that he claimed to have seen in Amsterdam, but did not say whether it was alive. Two living specimens were seen by Peter Mundy in Surat between 1628 and 1634.

Drawing of an individual that was in the Prague collection of Emperor Rudolf II. The author of the drawing is Jacob Hufnagel

Drawing of a dodo by Adrian van de Venne in 1626

The presence of whole stuffed dodos indicates that the birds were brought to Europe alive and then died there; It is unlikely that there were taxidermists on board the ships that visited Mauritius, and alcohol had not yet been used to preserve biological exhibits.

Most of the tropical artifacts were preserved in the form of dried heads and legs. Based on a combination of contemporary accounts, paintings and stuffed animals, Julian Hume concluded that at least eleven of the exported dodos were delivered alive to their final destinations.

Like many other animals that developed in isolation from serious predators, dodos were not at all afraid of people. This lack of fear and inability to fly made the bird an easy prey for sailors. Although anecdotal reports have described the mass slaughter of dodos to replenish ship supplies, archaeological studies have not found significant evidence of human predation.

The bones of at least two dodos were discovered in caves near Baiedu Cap, which in the 17th century served as a refuge for maroons and escaped convicts, and were not easily accessible to dodos due to the mountainous, rugged terrain.

The human population in Mauritius (an area of ​​1,860 km²) never exceeded 50 in the 17th century, but they introduced other animals, including dogs, pigs, cats, rats and cynomolgus macaques, which raided dodo nests and competed for limited food resources.

At the same time, people were destroying the dodo's forest habitat. The impact on the population of the species from introduced pigs and macaques is currently considered more significant and significant than from hunting. Rats may not have been as much of a threat to the nests since the dodos were used to dealing with the local land crabs.

It is assumed that by the time people arrived in Mauritius, the dodo was already rare or had a limited range, since it is unlikely to have died out so quickly if it had occupied all the remote areas of the island.

There is controversy over the date of the dodo's extinction. The last widely accepted report of a dodo sighting was from sailor Volkert Everts from the shipwrecked Dutch ship Arnhem, dating back to 1662. He described birds caught on a small island near Mauritius (now believed to be Îled'Ambre Island):

“... These animals, when we approached, froze, looking at us, and calmly remained in place, as if they had no idea whether they had wings to fly away, or legs to run away, and allowing us to get as close to them as we could wanted. Among these birds were those which in India are called Dod-aersen (a species of very large geese); these birds cannot fly, instead of wings they just have small appendages, but they can run very fast. We drove them all into one place so that we could catch them with our hands, and when we grabbed one of them by the leg, she made such a noise that everyone else immediately ran to her rescue and, in the end, they themselves were also over-caught ... "

The last reported sighting of the dodo was recorded in the hunting records of the governor of Mauritius, Isaac Johannes Lamotius, in 1688, giving a new approximate date of 1693 for the dodo's disappearance.

Although the dodo's rarity was reported as early as the 17th century, its extinction was not recognized until the 19th century. Partly for religious reasons, since extinction was considered impossible (until Georges Cuvier proved the opposite), and partly because many scientists doubted that the dodo had ever existed. Overall, he seemed too strange a creature, so many believed that he was a myth. In addition, the possibility was taken into account that dodos could survive on other, still unexplored islands of the Indian Ocean, despite the fact that vast territories of both Madagascar and mainland Africa remained poorly studied. This bird was first cited as an example of extinction due to human activity in 1833 by the British magazine The Penny Magazine.

The only surviving remains of dodos brought to Europe in the 17th century are:

• a dried head and paw in the Oxford University Natural History Museum;
• a paw kept in the British Museum, now lost;
• skull in the Copenhagen Zoological Museum;
• upper jaw and leg bones in the National Museum of Prague.

Skeleton composed by Richard Owen from bones found in the Mare aux Songes bog

26 museums around the world have significant holdings of dodo biological material, almost all of which was found at Mare aux Songes. The Natural History Museum of London, the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, the Senckenberg Museum, the Darwin Museum in Moscow and several others have almost complete skeletons made up of individual bones.

The skeleton in the Darwin Museum was previously in the collection of a Russian horse breeder, fellow chairman of the Bureau of Ornithology of the Imperial Russian Society for the Acclimatization of Animals and Plants and a full member of the Russian Ornithological Committee A. S. Khomyakov, nationalized in 1920.

Imaginary "white dodo" from Reunion Island (or the Reunion Hermit Dodo) is now considered an erroneous guess, which was based on contemporaries' reports of the Reunion ibis and on famous 19th-century depictions of dodo-like white birds made in the 17th century by Pieter Vitos and Pieter Holstein.

The confusion began when the Dutch captain Bontecou, ​​visiting Reunion around 1619, mentioned in his journal a heavy, flightless bird called the dod-eersen, although he wrote nothing about its coloration.

When this ship's log was published in 1646, it was accompanied by a copy of Saverey's sketch from the Crocker Art Gallery. The white, dense and flightless bird was first mentioned as part of the Reunion fauna by senior officer Tatton in 1625. Isolated mentions were subsequently made by the French traveler Dubois and other contemporary authors.

In 1848, Baron Michel-Edmond de Cely-Longchamp gave the bird the Latin name Raphus solitarius because he believed the reports referred to a new species of dodo. When 19th-century naturalists discovered paintings of white dodos dating back to the 17th century, it was concluded that they depicted this particular species. Anton Cornelius Oudemans suggested that the reason for the discrepancy between the drawings and the old descriptions lies in sexual dimorphism (the paintings supposedly depicted females). Some authors believed that the birds described belonged to a species similar to the Rodrigues hermit dodo. It has even been hypothesized that white individuals of both the dodo and the hermit dodo lived on Reunion Island.

White dodo. Drawing by Peter Holstein. Mid-17th century

17th-century illustration sold at Christie's

In 2009, a previously unpublished 17th-century Dutch illustration of a white and gray dodo was auctioned at Christie's. It was planned to fetch £6,000, but in the end it went for £44,450. Whether this illustration was copied from a stuffed animal or from earlier images remains unknown.

The unusual appearance of the dodo and its significance as one of the most famous extinct animals have repeatedly attracted writers and figures of popular culture.

This is how the expression “dead as a Dodo” (dead as a dodo) entered the English language, which is used to denote something outdated, as well as the word “dodoism” (something extremely conservative and reactionary).

Similarly, the idiom "togothewayoftheDodo" has the following meanings: "to die" or "to become obsolete", "to fall out of common use or practice", or "to become part of the past".

Alice and Dodo. Illustration by J. Tenniel for Lewis Carroll's fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland”

In 1865, just as George Clarke began publishing reports of the excavation of dodo remains, the bird, whose reality had just been proven, appeared as a character in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. It is believed that the author inserted Dodo into the book, identifying himself with him and taking the name as a personal pseudonym due to a stutter that caused him to spontaneously pronounce his real name as “Do-Do-Dodgson.” The popularity of the book made the dodo a widely known symbol of extinction.

Coat of arms of Mauritius

These days, the dodo is used as an emblem on many types of products, especially in Mauritius. The dodo is represented on the coat of arms of this country as a shield holder. In addition, an image of his head appears on the watermarks of Mauritian rupee banknotes of all denominations.

The dodo image is used by many conservation organizations, such as the Durrell Wildlife Trust and the Durrell Wildlife Park, to raise awareness for the protection of endangered species.

The dodo has become a symbol of the destruction of species as a result of a careless or barbaric invasion from the outside into an established ecosystem.

A.A. Kazdym

List of used literature

Akimushkin I.I. “Dead like a dodo” // Animal World: Birds. Fish, amphibians and reptiles. M.: Mysl, 1995

Galushin V.M., Drozdov N.N., Ilyichev V.D., Konstantinov V.M., Kurochkin E.N., Polozov S.A., Potapov R.L., Flint V.E., Fomin V.E. . Fauna of the World: Birds: Directory M.: Agropromizdat, 1991

Vinokurov A.A. Rare and endangered animals. Birds / edited by academician V.E. Sokolova. M.: “Higher School”, 1992.

Humme J.P. Cheke A.S. The white dodo of Réunion Island: unravelling a scientific and historical myth // Archives of natural history. Vol. 31, No. 1, 2004

Dodo skeleton find in Mauritius

BirdDodo: after death anddo

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The Dodo was well known to the public due to its prominent role in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, which became an integral part of popular culture. The bird's name subsequently became associated with the concept of extinction and extinction.

Taxonomy and evolution

Before the classification of the dodo, there was a lot of speculation about its origin. The dodo has been compared to many birds, including ostriches and vultures, but the bird's exact taxonomic position is unknown. In 1846, based on studies of a dodo skull in Copenhagen, Johann Reinhardt proposed that dodos were related to ground doves. From Reinhardt's memoirs:

A recently discovered sketch of a dodo's head in the Oxford Museum.

This view was later supported by Hugh Strickland and Melville after analyzing the preserved head and paw of the stuffed animal in the Oxford Museum, but this opinion remained controversial until genetic testing. After a molecular study of cytochrome b mitochondrial DNA and the 12S rRNA sequence, the “pigeon” theory was confirmed. Comparative DNA analysis of dodos and other birds has shown that the ancestors of the Mauritian dodo were different from their closest known relatives. A similar analysis conducted on the DNA of the extinct white dodo also showed differences between the ancestors that lived during the Paleogene-Neogene period and the recently extinct bird. Since the Mascarene Islands were volcanic in origin and were 10 million years old, the ancestors of both the Mauritius and the white dodo likely retained the ability to fly for a considerable time after splitting from their lineage. This same study also shows that the maned dove, native to southeast Asia, is a close relative of both the dodo and the white dodo. The generic name of the dodo, like the jagged-billed pigeon of Samoa, is Didunculus, which means "little dodo" in Samoan. The same study also showed that the scalloped dove and the dodo are closely related, however the inferred phylogenetics of the relationship of the two species is problematic. After research, we can now say with confidence that the ancestors of the dodo were pigeons from Southeast Asia or Wallacea, thereby confirming the theory of the origin of most Mascarene birds.

For a long time, the Mauritian and white dodos, together with the so-called Didines were in the family Raphidae. This was because their relationship to other groups of birds, such as crests, remained unclear. After a proposal that resulted in the name being removed Didines, Mauritian and white dodos were placed in the subfamily Raphinae .

Etymology

A 1634 drawing by Sir Thomas Herbert of a broad-billed parrot (left), a rufous Mauritian rail (centre) and a dodo (right)

The origin of the word "dodo" is unclear. According to one version, it originates from the Dutch word dodoor, meaning "lazy". However, according to the most probable version, the name dodo comes from another Dutch word - dodaars, meaning either "fat-bottomed" or "back-knot", referring to the bird's narrow tuft of tail feathers. First entry of a word dodaerse was made in a journal by Captain Willem van Westsanen in 1602. Sir Thomas Herbert used the word "dodo" in 1627, but it is unclear whether he was the first, as the Portuguese who visited Mauritius in 1507 are not known to have used it in their speech. However, according to dictionaries Encarta And Chambers The name "dodo" comes from the Portuguese word doudo(similar to another Portuguese word doido), meaning "fool" or "crazy". However, the existing Portuguese name for the bird, dodo, taken from the international word dodo. David Quaman believed that the word "dodo" was an onomatopoeia of the bird's voice, and the two notes pronounced by the pigeons resembled the phrase "doo-doo". There are different hypotheses about the origin of these names. It was believed, for example, that dodo comes from the Portuguese word duodo - stupid, stupid, blockhead. Given the stupid appearance and carelessness of these birds, the discoverers of Mauritius chose the right name. The Danish word is drunte (“to move slowly, clumsily”). By the way, the Danes really sailed to Mauritius in the 20s. XVII century and could participate in word formation.

The Dutch scientist A. S. Oudemans, in his book about the dodo, gave a more reasonable explanation of the word “dodo”. In Middle Dutch, the verb "dronten" in old times meant "flabby", "bloated", "arrogant" or "swaggering". This was quite consistent with the appearance of the bird, some individuals of which, according to contemporaries, almost carried their belly along the ground. And she looked in no way like a swan or a dove, but like a broiler chicken, swollen to the size of a turkey. In modern Dutch, the word “dronten” is considered indecent.

Painting by Roylant Savery Bird landscape(1628). Dodo in the lower right corner.

The dodo's original name was walghvogel, meaning "matted" or "disgusting bird" (referring to the taste of the bird's flesh). It was first used in the journal of Vice-Admiral Wiebrand van Warwijk, who visited the island with Van Neck's expedition in 1598.

From the ship's log entries:

On the left side of the ship was the small island of Heemskirk, as well as Warwick Bay... the discovery in this place of a large number of "dirty" and "dried" birds, twice as large as swans, was a very good catch. However, the presence of many pigeons and parrots was despised most of all, since it was impossible to eat these large birds, thereby calling them "dried birds" due to their disgusting and tough meat

Original text(English)

On their left hand was a little island which they named Heemskirk Island, and the bay it selve they called Warwick Bay... finding in this place great quantity of foules twice as bigge as swans, which they call Walghstocks or Wallowbirds being very good meat . But finding an abundance of pigeons & popinnayes, they disdained any more to eat those great foules calling them Wallowbirds, that is to say lothsome or fulsome birdes.

Wiebrand van Warwijk, 1598

The bird was also mentioned by the Dutch under the name dronte, meaning “swollen.” It is still used in some languages.

In his 18th century work “The System of Nature”, Carl Linnaeus introduced a specific name - cucullatus, meaning “hooded,” and the combination of this word with the name of a genus of bird gave the name Struthio, which was applied to ostriches. Mathurin-Jacques Brisson introduced a new name for the genus - Raphus, which was a reference to bustards, which has survived unchanged to this day. Linnaeus later came up with a suitable name - Didus ineptus, but it became synonymous with the early name due to nomenclatural priority.

A dodo skeleton assembled from bones found in a swampy area on the island of Mauritius.

Description

A drawing of a dodo's head by Cornelis Saftleven in 1638, which is the last original illustration of the bird

To this day, there are no complete stuffed dodos, so creating the appearance of the bird, especially its plumage and coloring, presents certain difficulties. But it is known from subfossil sediments and the remains of dodos that were introduced into Europe in the 17th century that they were very large birds, possibly weighing up to 23 kg (50 lb), although larger masses only referred to captive specimens. However, according to some estimates, the weight of the bird in its natural habitat was about 10.6-17.5 kg. The bird could not fly, since its sternum and small wings were not adapted for flight. These land birds, having evolved, conquered the entire ecosystem of the island, since there were no predatory mammals on it. The dodo also had a 23 cm (9 in) long, hooked, spotted beak. A study of several preserved dodo head feathers at the Oxford Museum showed that dodos were covered in down rather than feathers. This and other characteristics are features of neoteny.

Mughal era miniature showing a dodo among Indian birds

When the dodo was still a living bird, about 15 illustrations were created, which, along with various written reports of sightings in Mauritius, provide the main evidence for the description of the appearance. According to most images, the dodo had grayish or brownish plumage, lighter flight feathers, and a light, curly tuft at the end of its tail. The bird also had a gray or bald head; green, black or yellow beak; thick and yellowish paws and black claws.

An early report from Van Neck's expedition described the bird as follows:

Blue parrots were very numerous, as were other birds, among which was a species of very noticeable larger size than our swans, with a large head, only half covered with down, as if wearing a hood. These birds had no wings, on which 3 or 4 black feathers protruded. The tail consisted of several soft concave feathers of an ashen color. We named them Walghvogel for the reason that the longer and more often they were cooked, the less soft and more bland they became. However, their belly and breast were pleasant to the taste and easy to chew.

Original text(English)

Blue parrots are very numerous there, as well as other birds; among which are a kind, conspicuous for their size, larger than our swans, with huge heads only half covered with skin as if clothed with a hood. These birds lack wings, in the place of which 3 or 4 blackish feathers protrude. The tail consists of a few soft incurved feathers, which are ash coloured. These we used to call "Walghvogel", for the reason that the longer and more often they were cooked, the less soft and more insipid eating they became. Nevertheless their belly and breast were of a pleasant flavor and easily masticated

One of the most detailed descriptions of the bird is by Sir Thomas Herbert in 1634:

For the first time and only on the island of Digarois (the modern name of the island of Rodrigues) was discovered a dodo (probably referring to the white dodo), which in appearance and rarity rivaled the Arabian phoenix: its body was round and fat, and it weighed less than fifty pounds. These birds are more likely a miracle than food, since their fatty stomachs, although they could satisfy hunger, but they tasted disgusting and innutritious. In her appearance, first of all, there was a plainness in which one was aware of the fragility of nature’s creation of such a large body, controlled by such small and weak wings, which served only to prove that it was a bird. Part of her bare head was covered with fine down, and her beak curved downward, in the middle of which were nostrils, the ends of which were light green or pale yellow. Her small eyes were like round cut diamonds, and her plumage and three small feathers were short and disproportionate. The claws and paws were short, and her appetite was strong and voracious.

Original text(English)

First here only and in Dygarrois (now Rodrigues, likely referring to the Solitaire) is generated the Dodo, which for shape and rarity may antagonize the Phoenix of Arabia: her body is round and fat, few weigh less than fifty pound. It is reputed more for wonder than for food, greasie stomackes may seeke after them, but to the delicate they are offensive and of no nourishment. Her visage darts forth melancholy, as sensible of Nature's injurie in framing so great a body to be guided with complementall wings, so small and impotent, that they serve only to prove her bird. The halfe of her head is naked seeming couered with a fine vaile, her bill is crooked downwards, in the midst is the trill, from which part to the end tis a light green, mixed with pale yellow tincture; her eyes are small and like to Diamonds, round and rowling; her clothing downy feathers, her train three small plumes, short and inproportionable, her legs suiting her body, her pounces sharpe, her appetite strong and greedy. Stones and iron are digested, which description will better be conceived in her representation.

One of the most famous and often copied images of a dodo, painted by Roelandt Savery in 1626

Differences in the illustrations of leading authors such as Anthony Cornelis Odemans and Masauji Hachisuki suggest sexual dimorphism, ontogenetic features, periodic changes and even possible new species, but these theories are not accepted today. Due to the fact that details such as beak coloration, tail shape and plumage differed from one individual to another, it is impossible to determine the exact morphology of these features, since they could indicate either differences in the age or sex of the bird, or a distortion of reality. Apart from the Gelderland drawings, it is also unknown whether there were other illustrations of living individuals or even stuffed animals that could affect the reliability of the descriptions. Dodo specialist Julian Hume argued that dodos might have slits instead of nostrils, judging by the Gelderland, Saftleven, Croker and Mansur images. In the images of the dodo's beak, the open nostrils are clearly visible, and not a defect resulting from the drying of the painting.

The traditional image of the dodo is that of a very fat, clumsy bird, although this view may be exaggerated. The general consensus among scientists is that old European drawings depicted overfed specimens in captivity. Results obtained from the dodo skeleton indicated that wild dodos could have weighed around 10.2 kilograms (22 lb). Dutch painter Roelandt Savery was the most prolific and influential illustrator of dodos, painting them at least six times. His famous 1626 painting, in the British Museum entitled Edward's Dodo, has become the standard image of the dodo. This painting shows a very fat bird, which is the source of many other dodo restorations. A 17th-century painting by Mughal artist Ustad Mansur, found in the 1950s, depicts a dodo along with endemic Indian birds. According to Professor Ivanov and Julian Hume, this image is one of the most accurate.

Behavior and lifestyle

Savery's sketch of three dodos in 1626, known as the Crocker Art Gallery Drawing

Not much is known about the behavior of dodos, and most modern descriptions are very brief. They mention that the bird lived in fruit trees, nested on the ground and hatched only one egg. François Cauche's description from 1651 provides some details about the egg and voice:

The voice was like that of a gosling, but the birds themselves had a rather unpleasant taste... They hatched one egg at a time, which was as large as a penny bun, opposite which lay white stones the size of a chicken egg. They hatched their eggs in a nest made of grass, which these birds built and placed in the forests. If you kill a young specimen, you will find a gray stone in the stomach. We called them the birds of Nazareth.

Original text(English)

The call is like that of a gosling but they are quite unpalatable to eat... They lay one egg, which is quite as large as a penny bun, against which they lay a white stone the size of a chicken"s egg. They lay their egg on a nest of grass which they collect and they place the nest in the woods. If one kills the young you find a gray stone in the gizzard.

Carcasses of "young ostriches" taken on board a ship in 1617 are the only record of possible juvenile dodos.

Map of the island of Mauritius in 1601. Point D on the far right of the map is where the dodos were found.

It is not yet known what the dodo's preferred habitat was, but based on old descriptions it has been suggested that they lived in the forests of the dry coastal regions of the south and west of Mauritius. Dodos were probably not common throughout the island, so they died out very quickly. A map from the Gelderland ship's log of 1601 shows the location where the dodos were caught, which was a small island off the coast of Mauritius. Julian Hume believes that this point was Tamarina Bay on the west coast of Mauritius.

Nutrition

The only source about the dodo's diet was a document from 1631 that does not exist today:

These Glaucous Gulls (Dodos) were very excellent and proud birds. They showed us their stern and stern heads with wide open beaks. With a brisk and bold gait, they could barely move in front of us. Their formidable weapons were their beaks, with which they could bite fiercely, and fed on fruits. They did not have very pronounced plumage, but had an abundant layer of fat. Many of them were delivered on board the ship to all our joy.

Original text(English)

These Burgmeesters are superb and proud. They display themselves to us with stiff and stern faces, and wide-open mouths. Jaunty and audacious of gait, they would scarcely move a foot before us. Their war weapon was their mouth, with which they could bite fiercely; their food was fruit; they were not well feathered but abundantly covered with fat. Many of them were brought onboard to the delight of us all.

Mauritius experienced dry and rainy seasons, which supposedly influenced the feeding patterns of dodos. Dodos ate ripe fruits at the end of the rainy season to survive the drought when food was scarce. Contemporary reports suggest that the bird had a “brutal” appetite. Some modern sources claim that dodos used stones to digest their food. The English historian Sir Hamon Lestrange, who witnessed the existence of a living bird, described it as follows:

About the year 1638, while I was walking the streets of London, I saw a strange-looking bird [hanging on a hook], and I, in the company of two or three people, went there to look at it. The creature was in the room, it was a large bird, somewhat larger than the largest turkey with long and big feet, but thicker and more straight in shape, the color of the breast of a young pheasant in front, and dark in color at the back. The owner called him Dodo, in the fireplace at the end of the room there was a pile of large pebbles, from which the owner gave several large stones, like nutmeg, to the bird before our eyes, he told us that Dodo eats them (it helps digestion), and although I don’t know , how much the owner knew his business, but I’m sure that after that the bird threw all the stones back

Original text(English)

About 1638, as I walked London streets, I saw the picture of a strange looking fowle hung out upon a clothe and myself with one or two more in company went in to see it. It was kept in a chamber, and was a great fowle somewhat bigger than the largest Turkey cock, and so legged and footed, but stouter and thicker and of more erect shape, colored before like the breast of a young cock fesan, and on the back of a dunn or dearc color. The keeper called it a Dodo, and in the ende of a chymney in the chamber there lay a heape of large pebble stones, whereof hee gave it many in our sight, some as big as nutmegs, and the keeper told us that she eats them (conducing to digestion), and though I remember not how far the keeper was questioned therein, yet I am confident that afterwards she cast them all again

Relationships with people

Extinction

Preserved remains

Cultural influence

Notes

1. Vinokurov A. A. Rare and endangered animals. Birds / edited by academician V. E. Sokolov. - M.: “Higher School”, 1992. - P. 57. - 100,000 copies.
2. - ISBN 5-06-002116-5
3. The Dodo - Raphus Cuccullatus. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
4. Reinhardt, J. T. Nøjere oplysning om det i Kjøbenhavn fundne Drontehoved. Kroyer, Nat. Tidssk. IV., 1842-43, pp. 71-72. 2. Strickland, H. E. (1848) The Dodo and its Kindred
5. London: Reeve, Benham and Reeve. p.128 Shapiro, Beth; Sibthorpe, Dean; Rambaut, Andrew; Austin, Jeremy; Wragg, Graham M.; Bininda-Emonds, Olaf R. P.; Lee, Patricia L. M. & Cooper, Alan (2002): Flight of the Dodo. 295 Science
6. : 1683. DOI :10.1126/science.295.5560.1683 (HTML abstract) Free PDF Supplementary information DNA yields dodo family secrets, BBC News
7. (February 28, 2002). Retrieved September 7, 2006.
8. http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/35_2/35_2_97-107.pdf Johnson, Kevin P. and Dale H. Clayton (2000): Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genes Contain Similar Phylogenetics. Signal for Pigeons and Doves (Aves: Columbiformes). 14 Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
9. (1): 141-151. PDF fulltext
10. Janoo 2005, France (1996): Dodo and solitaires, myths and reality. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Arts & Sciences of Mauritius 6 : 89-122 HTML fulltext
11. Dodo skeleton find in Mauritius, DNA yields dodo family secrets,(24 June 2006). Retrieved March 14, 2012.
12. The Portuguese word doudo or doido may itself be a loanword from Old English (cf. English “dolt”).
13. Quammen, David (1996): The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. Touchstone, New York. ISBN 0-684-82712-3
14. Kitchener A.C., “Justice at last for the dodo”, New Scientist p.24, 28 August 1993.
15. LOST LAND OF THE DODO: An Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues. Anthony Cheke and Julian Hume. 464 pp. Yale University Press, 2008
16. DOI:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1989.tb02535.x
17. DOI:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1993.tb02686.x
18. Fuller, Errol: The Dodo - Extinction In Paradise, 2003
19. Rothschild Walter Extinct Birds. - London: Hutchinson & Co, 1907. - P. 172.
20. Oudemans, 1917
21. Kitchener, A. On the external appearance of the dodo, Raphus cucullatus. Archives of natural history, 20, 1993.
22. http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/2005/PSCF9-05Bergman.pdf
23. (2011) “The end of the fat dodo? A new mass estimate for Raphus cucullatus". Naturwissenschaften 98 : 233-236. DOI:10.1007/s00114-010-0759-7.
24. (2011) “In defense of the slim dodo: a reply to Louchart and Mourer-Chauviré.” Naturwissenschaften 98 : 359–360. DOI:10.1007/s00114-011-0772-5.
25. Dissanayake, Rajith (2004). “What did the dodo look like? " The Biologist(Society of Biology) 51 (3): 165–168. Retrieved 14 September 2011.
26. Fuller, Errol: Dodo – From Extinction To Icon, 2002
27. Cheke, Hume: Lost Land of the Dodo, 2008
28. Fuller, Errol (2001). Extinct Birds (revised ed.). Comstock. ISBN 080143954X., pp. 96–97

2015-06-14
The dodo, or Raphus cucullatus, is an extinct species of flightless bird that is native to the tiny island nation of Mauritius. The answer to the question of its extinction is complex and ambiguous.

The standard theory of extinction is that Dutch sailors ate most of the species. The dodo was incredibly easy to catch due to the fact that she had no fear of people (why she was not afraid of creatures much larger than her size is another mystery). There is rationality and evidence in this theory. Sailors landed and settled on the island in 1598, and various sources confirm that Dodos were indeed hunted by sailors due to their clumsiness.

According to a paper published in Oxford University Natural History, another reason is indicated. Pigs, dogs and rats introduced by Europeans plundered bird nests and destroyed eggs, and in combination with humans, the species' population began to decline rapidly until it was wiped out.

The exact date of people's acquaintance with the Dodo is a matter of debate, the first date is 1598, eyewitnesses are Dutch sailors traveling with Jacob van Neck. According to other sources, the bird was seen decades earlier in 1507.

The date of extinction is also controversial. According to Oxford University, the Dodo became extinct in 1680, which is reflected in many other sources. But there are observations of the bird 10 years later than this estimate. The third estimate is 1662 (book: Lost Land of the Dodo: The Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues). The 30-year gap makes it difficult to confirm any extinction theory.

The interesting thing is that being one of the most famous extinct animals of all time, on par with mammoths. No complete skeleton exists; the last was destroyed by fire in 1755.

The common image of the dodo, a clumsy, overweight bird, is most likely incorrect. In a reconstruction of newly discovered bones, it turns out that the dodo was actually more graceful and agile than past artists portrayed it. The reason for this is most likely a discrepancy between the seasonal changes in fat.

Thus, there is a mystery of extinction that has not yet been completely solved. Perhaps over time some new technology or data will emerge that will shed light on this interesting mystery.

Without ever being studied. And the dodo bird is a great example of this. Let us immediately make a reservation that such a species did not exist in the world! Dodo is a fairy-tale character who appeared in the book “Alice in Wonderland”.

This is how they began to call the extinct endemic of the island of Mauritius - the Mauritius dodo (Raphus cucullatus). We’ll talk about him today, using his “nickname” for convenience.

So, what kind of bird is this, and why is its name associated with the Red Book and the word “extermination”?

Not too long ago, even by historical standards, birds of the Dodo family lived on the island of Mauritius. There were no people here, there were also no predators as a class, and therefore the dodo bird was extremely stupid and clumsy.

They lacked the ability to quickly hide from danger or somehow get food, since there was plenty of food.

It is not surprising that they soon lost their last ability to fly, their height began to reach a meter at the withers, and their weight was at least 20-25 kg. Imagine the largest and fattest goose, doubled in size. The dodo bird had such a massive and heavy belly that most of the time it simply dragged along the ground behind it.

These birds lived solitarily, pairing up only for a while. The female laid only one egg, and therefore both parents carefully looked after it, protecting it from all dangers (of which there were few).

The dodo bird lived not only on the above island, but also on Rodrigues: both places belong to the Mascarene archipelago, located in the waters of the Indian Ocean. Moreover, on Rodriguez there lived a hermit dodo, which belonged to a completely different species.

In Mauritius, these unique birds lived until 1681, while the “hermits” were lucky to survive until the beginning of the 19th century.

As it happened, everything ended immediately after the Europeans appeared on the archipelago. First the Portuguese, and then the Dutch, considered that there were no better ship supplies in the world than dodos.

There was no need to hunt them: come closer, hit the huge turkey on the head with a stick - and there was a ready supply of meat. The birds did not even run away, since their weight and gullibility did not allow this to happen.

However, even people could not destroy as many dodos as those they brought with them devoured: dogs, cats, rats and pigs made a real feast, eating chicks and eggs by the thousands. The dodo bird, of which there are no photos (only drawings), very quickly turned out to be almost completely destroyed.

Unfortunately, throughout the world there is not even a complete skeleton of at least one of the destroyed species. The only complete set of the Mauritius Dodo was kept in the London Museum, but was burned during a terrible fire in 1755.

In fairness, it must be said that they still tried to help these birds. Hunting was completely prohibited, and the surviving individuals were kept in enclosures. However, in captivity, the extinct dodo bird did not reproduce, and rats and cats doomed to death those few dodos that were still hiding in the deep forests.

This story once again reminds us of the fragility of natural biotopes and the greed of a person who realizes it too late.