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Mauritius was once home to an amazing array of indigenous
birds and land creatures, until the arrival of the first European
explorers in the seventeenth century. They ate half the indigenous
animal population, including the dodo - that flightless
bird of near-mythical status that organised the Caucus Race
in Lewis Carroll's children's book, Alice in Wonderland.
History of the demise of the dodo
The dodo, named from the Dutch for 'round arse', was first
witnessed by Dutch sailors in the late 1600s and its last
sighting was in 1861. The dodo is a symbol of man's destruction
but also a sign of stupidity, thus the expression, "dead
as a dodo." This three-foot tall flightless bird lived
on fruit and nested on the ground, was entirely fearless of
humans, and took advantage of the island's lack of predators.
However, it was not humans as prey that destroyed the dodo
- in fact the Portuguese settler called it walgvogel
('ghastly bird') because however it was cooked, its meat was
as tough as boots and foul (rather than fowl) tasting. It
was other wildlife on Mauritius that led to its downfall -
principally the alien species that the Europeans brought with
them - pigs, rats, and monkeys.
The survival of the dodo tree
Destroying one species has a knock-on effect for other flora
and fauna in the same region. In 1973, scientists discovered
that a species of tree on Mauritius, commonly known as the
dodo tree, was dying out with only thirteen specimens
remaining, all of which were 300 years old, dating to the
time the last dodo was killed. It was thought that the dodos
ate the seeds of the tree and the seeds only became active
after passing through the bird. Scientists found a solution
by using turkeys to re-fertilize the dodo tree.
The recreation of the dodo
It is curious that a bird without wings can exist on an island.
Experts belief the dodo could fly but once it got to Mauritius
it chose not to; it had a strange reverse evolution of trying
to achieve flightlessness. Curiouser and curiouser are claims
springing from around 1990 that the dodo still exists - including
one from Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling who
fictionally claimed the dodo is alive and well, but it is
called the Diricawl by wizards. This magical bird can vanish
and reappear elsewhere, leading muggles (non-magical humans)
to believe it is extinct.
But the truth is stranger than fiction. Scientists belief
the technology exists to re-create a dodo from DNA, leading
to nightmarish Jurassic Park visions of giant dodo taking
over the island. As most of the island's population is Hindu,
re-incarnation sits fairly comfortably with their beliefs,
but Mauritians are determined that if the dodo ever lives
again it should do so in Mauritius.
Tourism and the dodo
Today, Mauritians are more respectful of this strange, inflated
pigeon of a bird and respect its legacy. A rampant dodo appears
on the Mauritian coat of arms and Mauritians know the dodo
mean the tourist dollar - in the international airport's duty-free
shop you'll find wooden dodos, plaster dodos, fluffy toy dodos,
and gem-studded gold dodos.
No complete bird exists, although several skeletons and reconstructions
are in museums around the world, and a dodo egg is on display
at the East London Museum in South Africa. Victorian
scientists were fascinated by the story of the bird and went
to great lengths to investigate its history. They made a reconstruction
of a skeleton from a pile of old bones, which can be viewed
in the Natural History Museum, a crumbling colonial
building in Jardin de la Compagnie, Port Louis. Here
you will also find an impressive life-size mock-up of the
entire bird, which is a similar size to a turkey and sits
inside a dusty cabinet. |
