Biographies 

The dodo bird: a story of extinction. The sad fate of the dodo Birds and animals dodo constantly

This story may seem fictional if it were not a fabulous reality. In ancient times, on the lost deserted islands in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius, Rodrigues and Reunion, belonging to the Mascarene Islands archipelago), dodo birds, representatives of the dodo family, lived.

Outwardly, they resembled turkeys, although they were two or three times larger. One dodo bird weighed 25-30 kg with a height of 1 meter. A long neck, a bare head, without signs of any plumage or crest, a very massive, terrifying beak, reminiscent of an eagle. Four-fingered paws and some kind of wings consisting of several modest feathers. And a small tuft, the so-called tail.

Trusting dodo bird

The island on which the birds lived was truly paradise: there were no people, no predators, or any other potential danger to the dodos. Dodo birds did not know how to fly, swim or run fast, but this was of no use, because no one offended the dodo. All the food was simply under their feet, which did not necessitate the need to get it by rising into the air or swimming across the ocean. Another distinctive characteristic of the dodo bird was its large belly, formed due to its too passive existence; it simply crawled along the ground, which made the movement of the birds very slow.

Dodo lifestyle

Dodo birds were characterized by a solitary lifestyle; they united in pairs only to raise offspring. The nest, in which a single large white egg was laid, was built in the form of an earthen mound with the addition of branches and palm leaves. The incubation process took place over 7 weeks, and both birds (female and male) took turns taking part in it. The parents carefully guarded their nest, not allowing strangers closer than 200 meters to it. It is interesting that if a “stranger” dodo approached the nest, then an individual of the same sex would drive it out.

According to the information received from those distant times (the end of the 17th century), dodos, calling each other, loudly flapped their wings; Moreover, within 4-5 minutes they made 20-30 swings, which created a loud noise that could be heard at a distance of more than 200 meters.

Brutal extermination of dodo birds

The dodo idyll ended with the arrival of Europeans to the islands, who perceived such easy prey as an excellent basis for food. Three slaughtered birds were enough to feed an entire ship's crew, and the entire voyage required several dozen salted dodos. However, sailors considered their meat tasteless, and light dodo hunting (when it was enough to hit the gullible bird with a stone or stick) was uninteresting. The birds, despite their powerful beaks, did not offer resistance and did not run away, especially since their excessive weight prevented them from doing so. Gradually, the hunting of dodos turned into a kind of competition: “who can kill the most dodos,” which can easily be called a ruthless and barbaric extermination of harmless natural creatures. Many tried to take such extraordinary specimens with them, but the seemingly tame creatures could not withstand the captivity imposed on them: they cried, refused food and eventually died. Historical fact confirms that when the birds were taken from the island to France, they shed tears, as if realizing that they would never see their native lands.

100 malicious years - and there are no dodos

The birds received their name “dodo” (from Portuguese) from the same sailors, who considered them stupid and idiots. Although in this case it was the people of the sea who were stupid, because an intelligent person would not mercilessly destroy a defenseless and unique creature.

Ship rats, cats, monkeys, dogs, and pigs brought to the islands by people also took an indirect part in the extermination of dodo birds by eating eggs and chicks. In addition, the nests were located on the ground, which only made it easier for predators to destroy them. In less than 100 years, not a single dodo remained on the islands. The story of the dodo is a vivid example of how a merciless civilization destroys in its path everything that is freely given by Nature.

As a symbol of the barbaric destruction of natural creatures, the Jersey Animal Conservation Trust chose the dodo bird as its emblem.

Alice in Wonderland - the book from which the world learned about the dodo bird

How did the world know about the existence of such an unusual bird? On which island did the dodo bird live? And did she really exist?

The public learned about dodo birds, which could remain forgotten for a long time, thanks to Lewis Carroll and his fairy tale “Alice in Wonderland.” There, the dodo bird is one of the characters, and many literary scholars believe that Lewis Carroll described himself in the image of the dodo bird.

There was only one stuffed dodo in the world; in 1637, they managed to bring a live bird from the islands to England, where for a long time they made money by displaying such an unusual specimen. After death, the feathered wonder was stuffed and placed in the London Museum in 1656. By 1755, it had been damaged by time, moths and bugs, so the museum curator decided to burn it. At the last moment before the “execution,” one of the museum workers tore off the leg and head from the stuffed animal (they were best preserved), which became priceless relics of the world of zoology.

The dodo is a flightless, extinct bird that lived on the island of Mauritius. The first mention of this bird arose thanks to sailors from Holland who visited the island at the end of the 16th century. More detailed data about the bird was obtained in the 17th century. Some naturalists have long considered the dodo a mythical creature, but it later became clear that this bird really existed.

Appearance

The dodo, known as the dodo bird, was quite large. Adult individuals reached a weight of 20–25 kg, and their height was approximately 1 m.

Other characteristics:

  • a swollen body and small wings, indicating the impossibility of flight;
  • strong short legs;
  • paws with 4 toes;
  • a short tail of several feathers.

These birds were slow and moved on the ground. Outwardly, the feathered creature somewhat resembled a turkey, but there was no crest on its head.

The main characteristic is the hooked beak and the absence of feathers near the eyes. For some time, scientists believed that dodos were related to albatrosses due to the similarity of their beaks, but this opinion has not been confirmed. Other zoologists have talked about belonging to birds of prey, including vultures, which also have no feathered skin on their heads.

It is worth noting that Mauritius dodo beak length is approximately 20 cm, with its end curved downwards. Body color is fawn or ash-gray. The feathers on the thighs are black, and the feathers on the chest and wings are whitish. In fact, the wings were only their rudiments.

Reproduction and nutrition

According to modern scientists, dodos created nests from palm branches and leaves, as well as earth, after which one large egg was laid there. Incubation for 7 weeks The male and female were engaged alternately. This process, along with feeding the chick, lasted several months.

During such a crucial period, the dodo did not allow anyone near the nest. It is worth noting that other birds were chased away by a dodo of the same sex. For example, if another female approached the nest, then the male sitting on the nest began to flap his wings and make loud noises, calling his female.

The dodo's diet was based on mature palm fruits, leaves and buds. Scientists were able to prove exactly this type of nutrition from stones found in the stomachs of birds. These pebbles served the function of grinding food.

Remains of the species and evidence of its existence

On the territory of Mauritius, where the dodo lived, there were no large mammals or predators, which is why the bird became trusting and very peaceful. When people began to arrive on the islands, they exterminated the dodo. In addition, pigs, goats and dogs were brought here. These mammals ate the bushes where the dodo nests were located, crushed their eggs, and destroyed chicks and adult birds.

After its final extermination, scientists found it difficult to prove that the dodo actually existed. One of the experts managed to find several massive bones on the islands. A little later, large-scale excavations were carried out in the same place. The last study was conducted in 2006. It was then that paleontologists from Holland found in Mauritius skeletal remains of a dodo:

  • beak;
  • wings;
  • paws;
  • spine;
  • element of the femur.

In general, the bird skeleton is considered a very valuable scientific find, but its parts are much easier to find than a surviving egg. Only one copy has survived to this day. Its value exceeds the value of a Madagascar epiornis egg, that is, the largest bird that existed in ancient times.

Interesting facts about the bird

Dodo arouses great interest from scientists from all over the world. This explains the numerous excavations and studies that are still carried out today in Mauritius. Moreover, some experts are interested in restoring the species using genetic engineering.

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 the name given to 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.

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 went 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, and may have survived until the early 19th century.

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 considered the dodo 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 at the beginning of the 17th 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 believed that the Mauritian dodo lost its ability to fly due to the presence of a large number of food sources (which is 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 of the bird was made by the English traveler Thomas Herbert in his book “A Relation of some yeares' Travaile, begunne Anno 1626, into Afrique 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. 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 speculations about different species, but none of these theories have 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 exporting 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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Dodo (Mauritian dodo)- this is literally a stupid bird. This name was given to it by the Portuguese who explored the island of Mauritius (Mauritius - in honor of the Prince of Orange - Maurits van Oranje) in 1507. Portuguese word "doudo" translated as "stupid" or "stupid".

Mauritius is an island with an area of ​​2000 square kilometers. Located in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar at a distance of 500 kilometers. Before man (and his pets, or rather cats and dogs) appeared here, Dodo lived serenely, having no natural enemies in principle. The dodo is a large bird, about a meter tall, weighing up to 18 kilograms, completely clumsy and, accordingly, unable to escape from danger.

More information about other representatives of wildlife can be found with illustrations (high-quality photographs and pictures) and interesting facts.

Her small legs could hardly support the weight of the bird. The inadequate size of the wings did not allow flight. In less than 180 years after their discovery, the Mauritian Dodo became extinct.. The reason, of course, was man.

In the 17th century, several Dodos were introduced to Europe. In 1638, in London, the bird was presented to the public for everyone to see. By 1680, there was no longer a single living individual, but thanks to sketches and bones found on the island of Mauritius, it was possible to completely recreate the skeleton of the Dodo. This exhibit is kept in the Natural History Museum, London.

But Mauritius is not the only island where Dodos lived. According to descriptions, a similar bird lived on the neighboring Rodrigues Island, but also not for long. Phrase "dead as a dodo"(as dead as a dodo) is used to emphasize complete destruction.

Mention of the Dodo bird in Lewis Carroll's work

The Dodo bird became widely known thanks to Lewis Carroll who created such a character in his book "Alice in Wonderland". It is believed that this bird is a caricature of the author himself. The character appears in the second chapter along with three other birds, then everyone takes part in the “running in a circle” competition, after which Alice distributes candied fruits to all participants.