It may be four centuries too late to save the iconic dodo from extinction, but theres still time enough to rescue the birds diminutive relative from sharing that same fate. Yes, little dodos are alive, but they are not well.
Not much is known about little dodos aside from the fact that theyre in peril, clinging to existence in a narrow patch of forest on the island of Samoa with likely fewer than 200 individuals remaining. Up until recently, after nearly 10 years passed without a sighting, many had feared that the species had already gone the way of its larger, ill-fated cousin.
But just last December, a rare sighting of a single juvenile bird sitting in a tree raised new hopes that there was still an opportunity to pull little dodos back from the brink.
“Everyone had questioned whether the bird still existed. Now we know it is still alive,” says Moeumu Uili, a researcher with the Samoan Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The little dodo, also known by the names Manumea and tooth-billed pigeon, have been pushed onto the endangered species list from threats like habitat loss, hunting and the introduction of non-native species. Unlike dodos, this species is capable of flight, which has no doubt been a factor critical to their survival. But that fact also makes it difficult for scientists studying how to protect them.
“We see them very rarely so it is always very exciting. They can cover large distances quite fast so following them is very difficult. Their speed is surprising since they do not look like they are designed for flight, they have short wings, short tail and a round bulky body,” says researcher Rebecca Stirnemann, to mongabay.com. “I have now heard them call a few times. The call is a mix of a cow moo and a pigeon coo, rather endearing.”
Now that little dodos have proven a willingness to reproduce, Stirnemann has devised a plan to help make life easier for the next generation. But because tracking the birds through the thick tropical jungle as they fly overhead is difficult, the researcher has a plan to monitor them with drones.
“On sensing a weak signal from one postage-stamp-sized tag fixed to an animal, a drone can fly towards the creature on autopilot and retrieve the tags data,” she says. The data would reveal crucial information about their distribution, revealing which areas are most in need of protection.
But as with many conservation efforts, researchers understand that one of the most effective ways to prevent a species from going extinct is by raising public awareness of their existence, and why they are worthy of being saved. Stirnemann hopes to launch a crowd-sourced funding campaign this year to support the little dodos survival, and not a minute too soon.
“One of the most critical things we need is the funds to hire local staff, a project car and pay for technology needed to track this species needs to be gathered before time runs out.”
Subfossil specimens
Up until 1860, the four incomplete specimens from the 17th century were the only known dodo remains. The first subfossil bones were discovered by Philip Burnard Ayres in 1860. They were sent to Richard Owen at the British Museum, but Owen chose not to publish the results. In 1863, Owen asked Vincent Ryan, the Mauritian bishop, to let people know that he should be notified if any dodo bones were discovered. [2] After a 30-year search motivated by Strickland and Melville’s monograph, George Clark, the government schoolmaster at Mahébourg, eventually discovered a large number of subfossil dodo bones in the swamp of Mare aux Songes in Southern Mauritius in 1865. [22] In 1866, Clark gave an explanation of his method to the ornithology journal The Ibis: he had his coolies wade through the middle of the swamp, using their feet to feel for bones. Before they removed the vegetation covering the swamp’s lowest point, they discovered a large number of fossils after finding few bones at first. [120] Harry Pasley Higginson, a Yorkshire-born railway engineer, claims to have found the Mare aux Songes bones concurrently with Clark, though there is some disagreement as to who actually found them first. Higginson shipped these bones in boxes to the museums in York, Leeds, and Liverpool. [121][122] The swamp produced the bones of more than 300 dodos, but only a small number of skull and wing bones; this could be because the lower body was trapped and the upper bodies were washed or scavenged. The circumstances are comparable to numerous moa remains discovered in marshes in New Zealand. [123] The majority of the dodo skeletons found in the Mare aux Songes are colored from medium to dark brown. [79].
Clarks reports about the finds rekindled interest in the bird. Sir Richard Owen and Alfred Newton became rivals after Owen purchased a shipment of dodo bones that were intended for Newton. Both men wanted to be the first to describe the post-cranial anatomy of the dodo. Owen wrote about the bones in Memoir on the Dodo in October 1866, but he incorrectly based his reconstruction on Savery’s painting of Edwards’ Dodo, which resulted in an excessively squat and obese creature. When he got additional bones in 1869, he adjusted its posture to make it more erect. Newton moved his focus to the Réunion solitaire instead. The remaining bones that weren’t purchased by Owen or Newton were given to museums or put up for auction. [2][124] Théodor Sauzier was hired in 1889 to investigate Mauritius’ “historical souvenirs” and locate additional dodo remains in the Mare aux Songes. In addition to finding the remains of other extinct species, he was successful. [125] Skeleton assembled from subfossils found in 2006,.
A portion of the Mare aux Songes swamp was excavated in 2005 by an international research team (International Dodo Research Project) following a century of neglect. During their occupation of Mauritius, the British had covered the swamp with hard core to prevent malaria; this had to be removed. Numerous bones from at least 17 dodos in different stages of maturity (but no juveniles) and several clearly from the skeleton of a single bird that have been preserved in their natural position were among the many remains that were discovered. [126] These results were presented to the public in December 2005 at the Leiden Naturalis museum. Approximately 2063% of the fossils discovered in the marsh belonged to turtles from the extinct genus Cylindraspis, and One percent belonged to dodos, which had been deposited some 4,000 years ago, within several centuries. [127] Later excavations revealed that during a protracted, intense drought approximately 4,200 years ago, dodos and other animals got entangled in the Mare aux Songes while attempting to reach water. [126] In addition, the excrement of animals that perished from thirst, dehydration, trampling, and miring around the swamp fostered the growth of cyanobacteria. [128] Despite the fact that numerous tiny skeletal fragments were discovered during the most recent swamp excavations, very few were discovered in the 19th century, most likely because less sophisticated techniques were used to collect [79].
Around 1900, amateur naturalist Louis Etienne Thirioux of Port Louis also discovered a large number of dodo remains in various locations. They included the only remnants of a juvenile specimen, a now-lost Tarsometatarsus, and the first articulated specimen, the first subfossil dodo skeleton discovered outside the Mare aux Songes. [22][37] The former specimen is the only known complete skeleton of a single dodo, discovered in a cave close to Le Pouce mountain in 1904. The specimen was given by Thirioux to the Museum Desjardins, which is now the Natural History Museum at the Mauritius Institute. In 1918, the heirs of Thioux sold a second mounted composite skeleton to the Durban Museum of Natural Science in South Africa. The skeleton was made up of at least two skeletons, with a primarily reconstructed skull. When combined, these two skeletons constitute the most comprehensively studied dodo remains known to science, containing previously unidentified bone elements like knee caps and wing bones. Even though some authors of the time acknowledged the significance of the Thrioux specimens, they were not examined scientifically and were mainly ignored until 2011, when a team of researchers started looking for them. After the mounted skeletons were laser scanned, 3-D models were created and used as the foundation for a monograph published in 2016 on the osteology of dodos. [131][132] In a lava cave in Mauritius, scientists found a dodo’s entire skeleton in 2006. This was the only recently discovered associated skeleton of an individual specimen, and only the second ever discovered overall. [133].
Etymology 1601 engraving showing Dutch activities on the shore of Mauritius and the first published depiction of a dodo on the left (2, called “
During the Second Dutch Expedition to Indonesia in 1598, Dutch Vice Admiral Wybrand van Warwijck visited Mauritius and used the term “Walghvoghel” as one of the original names for the dodo. [22] Voghel means “bird,” and Walghe means “tasteless,” “insipid,” or “sickly.” Jakob Friedlib translated the name as Walchstök or Walchvögel in German. The English translation of the Waarachtige Beschryving report, which was originally written in Dutch, has survived.
The Portuguese called them penguins, according to another account from that voyage—possibly the first to mention the dodo. The word “pinion,” which alludes to the small wings, may have been the source of the meaning rather than the word “penguin,” as the Portuguese at the time called those birds “fotilicaios.” [22] In 1602, the crew of the Dutch ship Gelderland called the bird “Dronte,” which means “swollen.” Some languages still use this term today. [26] In addition, this crew referred to them as “griff-eendt” and “kermisgans,” referring to poultry that had been fattened for the Amsterdam Kermesse festival, which took place the day after they anchored on Mauritius. Labelled sketch from 1634 by.
The etymology of the word dodo is unclear. Some attribute it to the Dutch word dodoor, which means “sluggard,” but it is most likely related to the word Dodaars, which refers to the knot of feathers on the hind end and means either “fat-arse” or “knot-arse.” The term “Dodaars” was first mentioned in Captain Willem Van West-Zanen’s journal in 1602. [29] In his travelogue from 1634, English writer Sir Thomas Herbert claimed to be the first to use the word “dodo” in print, citing Portuguese visitors to Mauritius in 1507 as their source. In a 1628 letter, Emmanuel Altham, another Englishman, used the word and asserted that it originated in Portuguese. Although it was first used in English at the same time as dodo, the name “dodar” wasn’t widely used until the 18th century. To our knowledge, the Portuguese made no reference to the bird. However, some sources continue to claim that the word dodo comes from the Portuguese word doudo, which is now replaced by doido and means “fool” or “crazy.” Additionally, it has been proposed that the term “dodo” was an onomatopoeic approximation of the bird’s call, which is a two-note pigeon sound that sounds like “doo-doo.” [31].
Skeleton 1848 lithographs of the Oxford dodo’s skull in multiple views
The dodo’s skull was quite different from other pigeons’, particularly in that it was stronger, its bill had a hooked tip, and its cranium was shorter than its jaws. Compared to its closest pigeon relatives, the cranium was short, with the upper bill nearly twice as long. There was no bony septum in the bony nostril openings, which were elongated along the length of the beak. The frontal bone shaped like a dome, with the highest point above the rear portion of the eye sockets, and the cranium (apart from the beak) being wider than long. The skull sloped downwards at the back. The majority of the back of the skull was occupied by the eye sockets. Similar to other pigeons, the eye’s sclerotic rings were formed by eleven ossicles, or tiny bones. Like other pigeons, the mandible had a slight curvature and a single fenestra (opening) on each half. [20] The dodo’s skeleton (left) and that of its nearest relative, the
The dodo vertebrates were composed of approximately nineteen presynsacral (thoracic and neck region, including three fused into a notarium), sixteen synsacral (lumbar and sacrum), six free tail (caudal), and a pygostyle vertebrates. The well-developed areas of the neck for muscle and ligament attachment were likely necessary to support the weight of the beak and skull. It had six ribs on each side, four of which articulated through sternal ribs with the sternum. Compared to the sternums of much smaller flying pigeons, this one was large but small in relation to the body. The sternum had a broad, relatively thick cross-section, and was very pneumatic. None of the individual skeletal components had vanished, but the pectoral girdle, shoulder blades, and wing bones were smaller than those of the flighted pigeon and more gracile than those of the Rodrigues solitaire. Nonetheless, the dodo’s carpometacarpus was stronger than the solitaire’s. The pelvis resembled the proportions of certain smaller, flighted pigeons, but it was wider than that of the solitaire and other relatives. Although the length proportions were slightly different, the majority of the leg bones were stronger than those of the pigeons and the solitaire that still exist today. [20].
The lack of flight has been ascribed to many of the skeletal characteristics that set the dodo and its closest relative, the Rodrigues solitaire, apart from other pigeons. To support their heavier weight, the pelvic elements of flighted pigeons were thicker than those of other birds, and their small wings and pectoral region were paedomorphic, meaning they were underdeveloped and had juvenile characteristics. The pelvic limbs, skull, and trunk were peramorphic, meaning that as people aged, they underwent significant change. In addition to their enormous size, the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire had similar features in their sternum, pelvis, and skull. Other differences included being shorter and more robust than the solitaire, as well as having a rounded skull roof, a larger skull and beak, and smaller orbits. The dodo’s legs and neck were comparatively shorter, and it lacked a counterpart to the knob on the solitaire’s wrists. [38].
FAQ
Is there 1 dodo bird left?
Can we bring back dodos?
Are dodo birds 100% extinct?
Who killed the last dodo bird?