The Loss of Lives Through Human Destruction

Dodo 

       The Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird endemic to the island of Mauritus, located off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. On average, it stood 3.3 feet tall, weighing  44 lb. The species lost the ability to fly through evolution because on Mauritius food was abundant and mammalian predators were absent. Natural selection depicted the birds did not need adept wings to escape predators through flight. 

     It was related to pigeons and doves, its closest relative was the extinct Rodrigues Soltaire. 17th century paintings and written accounts are the only known sources of the dodo's appearance. These vary considerably, with only a few sketches are known to have been life drawn. Much mystery remains over its exact appearance, habitat and, behavior.

      The Dodo was first mentioned by Dutch sailors in 1598. By 1681, all dodos had been killed by hungry sailors or their domesticated animals. This was not realized at the time, since the Dodo barely left any traces after its extinction, and was later believed to have simply been a mythological creature until the 19th century.  

       Research was conducted on some of the few surviving remains of specimens that had been taken to Europe in the 17th century. Since then, a large amount of sub-fossil material has been collected from Mauritius, increasing the amount of solid evidence relating to the bird. The Dodo's extinction, within 80 years of its discovery, made people realize for the first time that humans could induce the extinction of plants and animals.

       As with many animals that have evolved in isolation from significant predators, the Dodo was entirely fearless of people, since it had no reason to be preyed upon by the lack of mammals on   the island of Mauritus. This, in combination with its flightlessness, made it easy prey for humans. However, journals are full of reports regarding the bad taste and tough meat of the Dodo, making their excess killings of the bird useless. 

        When humans first arrived on Mauritius, they also brought with them other animals that had not existed on the island before, including dogs, pigs, cats, rats, and Crab-eating Macaques, which invaded the Dodo nests and consumed their eggs.  Humans destroyed the forests where the birds made their homes and thus removed their habitat and adapted way of living. The impact these animals—especially the introduced mammals—had on the dodo population is currently considered to have been more severe than that of hunting. The 2005 expedition's finds of Dodo are of  birds killed by a flash flood; such mass mortalities would have further jeopardized a species already in danger of becoming extinct.       

     There is some controversy surrounding the extinction date of the Dodo. The last confirmed Dodo sighting is the one made on a small islet off Mauritius reported by shipwrecked mariner Volker Evertsz in 1662. Considering more circumstantial evidence, such as travelers' reports and the lack of good reports after 1689, it is likely that the dodo became extinct before 1700. The last Dodo died a little more than a century after the species' discovery in 1598.

     Even though the rarity of the species was reported in the 17th century, it was not realized that it had gone extinct until the 19th century. This was partially because extinction was not believed to be possible at the time due to religious reasons.  It would not become so before George Cuvier  demonstrated it as fact. 

    Many scientists also doubted the Dodo had ever actually existed due to lack of evidence at the time. It was first used as an example of a human induced extinction in 'Penny Magazine', 1833. It now serves at the primary example scientists' use of human destruction of the diversity of species. It is unfortunate that this bird could not adapt quick enough to acquire the changes needed to survive the massive killing of its kind.