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There are two speculations on where the name for the dodo came from. The more accepted source is the Dutch word "dodoor" which mean "sluggard." This word describes both the dodo's looks and appearance. The other speculation is that the name comes from the Portuguese word "doudo" which, meaning foolish or simple. (Strickland and Melville, 1848)

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Behavior

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Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Conservation Status

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The first group of sailors believed to have arrived on Mauritius were Portuguese, led by Captain Mascaregnas, in 1507. They had intended to land on the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, but stormy conditions had blown them off course and they ended up finding respite on Mauritius. Several other expeditions, Portuguese, Dutch, British and others, made stops at the island in the following years. In the dodos, the sailors found amusement and, when they were running out of supplies, food.

The Dutch colonized Mauritius in 1644 . Along with groups of people, the ships brought cats, dogs, swine and sometimes monkeys. These animals quickly invaded the woods, trampling the nests and frightening the birds. These domestic creatures also devoured the dodo eggs and young. The interference of the foreign animals coupled with the continued overuse of the birds for food led to its total extinction by 1681. (Strickland and Melville, 1848; Britannica, 1986)

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: extinct

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Benefits

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The main purpose dodos served to humans, in the brief contact between the two species, was as food. The sailors frequently fed on wildlife from Mauritius while staying there, although it has been said that dodo meat was not particularly tasty. Still, they were hunted intensely, with sailors sometimes bringing back as many as 50 at a time. What they couldn't eat right away they would salt and bring back with them.

A few attempts were made to bring back a dodo alive. When this was sucessful, entreprenuers would capitalize on the unique looks of the bird and tour the dodos around Europe, displaying them in cages and demonstrating how the dodo could "eat" stones. (Strickland and Melville, 1848; Fuller, 1987)

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Trophic Strategy

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Scientists thoughts on the diet of the dodo are based mainly on speculation. Some sailors' accounts talk of watching dodos wade into water-pools to catch fish. They have been described as "strong and greedy" hunters. What really fascinated the visitors to Mauritius, however, was the fact that dodos seemed to eat stones and iron frequently and with no trouble. It is now surmised that the rocks eased digestion. (Strickland and Melville, 1848; Fuller, 1987)

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Distribution

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Dodo birds were once the inhabitants of Mauritius, a small, oyster-shaped island which lies approximately 500 miles east of Madagascar. (Britannica, 1986)

Biogeographic Regions: indian ocean (Native )

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Habitat

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Although many pictures and stories place the dodo along the shores of Mauritius, it was actually a forest-dwelling bird. The island of Mauritius is home to a variety of biomes, such as plains, small mountains, forests, and reefs all along the shores. However, the dodo made its home primarily in the forest. (Fuller, 1987; Britannica, 1986)

Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; forest ; scrub forest

Aquatic Biomes: reef

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Morphology

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Our present day knowledge of what the dodo looked like is based on several sources. There are accounts from the diaries and writings of the sailors and captains who landed on Mauritius in the 16th and 17th century, drawings from the few humans who were able to witness them alive (although, it can't even be proven that all the artists who rendered the dodo ever actually saw one). There are a few fossils excavated from the island, which are kept at the British Museum, and a foot and a beak which are preserved at Oxford, but there are no complete stuffed specimens (models in museums are based on partial remains). From these records and pictures, scientists and ornithologists have pieced together a fairly detailed composite of the dodo.

The dodo was a large, plump bird covered in soft, grey feathers, with a plume of white at its tail. It had small wings that were far too weak to ever lift the dodo off the ground. Because it was flightless, those who saw the bird often thought it had no real wings at all, describing them as "little winglets." Study of the skeleton reveals, however, that the dodo did in fact have wings that were simply not used for flight, much like penguins' wings. The dodo's legs were short and stubby and yellow in color. On the end of the legs were four toes, three in front and one acting as a thumb in back, all with thick, black claws. The head was a lighter grey than the body, with small, yellow eyes. Many words have been devoted to the long, crooked and hooked beak, which was light green or pale yellow in color and was one of the most distinguishing features of the dodo. Those who saw it, marveled at the unique shape and size. One witness went so far as to describe it as grotesque. (Strickland and Melville, 1848; Fuller, 1987; Greenway, 1958; Britannica, 1986)

Range mass: 13000 to 23000 g.

Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Reproduction

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Specifics about mating and incubation periods are not known. Several people have described the nests the dodo made as being deep in the forest, in a bed of grass. There, the female would lay one egg, which she would protect and raise. One sailor told about hearing the cries of a young dodo in its nest, which sounded "like that of a young goose." (Fuller, 1987; Greenway, 1958)

Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous

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Brown, B. 2002. "Raphus cucullatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed April 27, 2013 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Raphus_cucullatus.html
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Brittany S. Brown, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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Brief Summary

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In 1598, when a Dutch ship arrived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, its sailors found a paradise clothed in a dense forest of ebony and bamboo and filled with bewildering wildlife. Many of the animals there were found nowhere else in the world, including a large flightless bird that would eventually be called the Dodo. One hundred years after its discovery the Dodo had vanished making it the first documented case of extinction caused solely by human interference.

Because Mauritius is a volcanic island and was never attached to the mainland, it had no mammals other than bats that had flown there. With no natural predators, the Dodo’s ancestors lost their ability to fly, adopted a ground-nesting habit, and became larger. Seventeenth-century observers commented on its diet of seeds, fruit, and probably tree roots.

The Dodo’s flightless nature made it vulnerable once humans arrived. It was easily hunted by European sailors and colonists who also began to cut down its forest home. Even more devastating were the effects of the non-native animals brought to the island. The pigs, cats, dogs, rats, and crab-eating macaques that arrived underwent a spectacular population explosion in an environment devoid of other mammals. Roaming dogs killed adult Dodos, while the rats, monkeys, and cats preyed on eggs and chicks.

By the middle of the 1600s Dodos were extremely rare and the species was almost certainly extinct before 1700. The date of the last sighting is disputed. For a long time, the date was thought to be 1681, from the account of sailor and scientist Benjamin Harry. Yet many commentators now think Harry may have been referring to another flightless bird, the Mauritian red rail, and the Dodo went extinct earlier.

References

  • Angst, D., Buffetaut, E., & Abourachid, A. (2011) The end of the fat dodo? A new mass estimate for Raphus cucullatus. Naturwissenschaften (2011) 98:233–236
  • https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Delphine_Angst/publication/49760842_The_end_of_the_fat_dodo_A_new_mass_estimate_for_Raphus_cucullatus/links/0046352a1bbe66e034000000.pdf
  • Cheke, A., & Hume, J. (2008). Lost Land of the Dodo: An Ecological History of Mauritius, Reunion & Rodrigues. Yale University Press, New Haven & London.
  • Leon, P.A.M. C., Meijer, H.J. M., Hume, J. & Rijsdijk, K.F., (eds). (2015). Anatomy of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus): An Osteological Study of the Thirioux Specimens. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35 (6), Memoir 15, 166pp.
  • Strickland, H.E., & Melville, A.G. (1848) The Dodo and Its Kindred: Or the History, Affinities, and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire. And Other Extinct Birds of the Islands Mauritius, Rodriguez and Bourbon. Reeve, Benham and Reeve, London. 141 pp. https://books.google.com/books?id=feNhAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=cygnus+cucullatus&source=bl&ots=4mVcTlM1oa&sig=FnHTbxchXMCJ4wTPOJkqM9974ik&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAGoVChMIyqqRnLi1yAIVRGk-Ch0hDwN1#v=onepage&q=cygnus%20cucullatus&f=false)
  • Shapiro, B., Sibthorpe, D., Rambaut, A., Austin J., Wragg, G.M., Bininda-Emonds, O., Lee, P.L.M. & Cooper, A. 2002 Flight of the Dodo. Science 295: 1683.
  • http://www.swansea.ac.uk/bs/turtle/reprints/Lee_Science_2002.pdf

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"What's in a Name?" Exhibit, Harvard Museum of Natural History. President and Fellows of Harvard College.
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