During your trip to Mauritius, you will have the opportunity to meet on several occasions, in many local markets, the bird called the "DODO" is used as a stuffed toy, keyring, or stamp. But why is this bird this important in Mauritius? You probably know the character with the same name in "The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland" (1864). The Dodo was chosen by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) to caricature himself. The bird came from an equally wonderful country: Mauritius.
The image of the dodo is near-ubiquitous across Mauritius, displayed as a kind of jolly national mascot. Its roly-poly, beaked visage is given a place of pride on the country’s currency, customs stamps, and national seal. The dodo lends its name to pizza parlors and coffee shops, its likeness to beach towels and backpacks. There are giant dodo statues in public parks and mall food courts. Countless tourist shops hawk tiny carved dodos for a few dollars.
An illustration of a dodo bird.
Some Mauritians traveling abroad find the extinct giant pigeon is the only thing people know about their homeland. In 2015, Mauritian Rick Bonnier came to the United Status as part of a State Department exchange program for young African leaders. “I told them ‘the dodo birds,’” he says.
The first descriptions of this bird come from the Dutch in 1598, who initially called it "walgvogel" literally "disgusting bird" referring to its taste. The Mauritian dodo was eventually known as the "dodo," but the etymology of this name remains uncertain. An endemic species, it is in the same family as pigeons, unlike the latter, which measure one meter and weigh on average 10.2 kilograms. It could live at least 30 years in the plains and forests of the island. Its plumage was blue-grey with yellow and white atrophied wings and a plume of five feathers of the same color for a tail. It had two yellow legs, each with four fingers with long black nails.
Read also: Exploring Chad's Fauna
The Dodo's Naiveté and Extinction
Though the dodo may be now synonymous with a kind of cursed stupidity (“going the way of the dodo” is a cliché on Mauritius as much as it is elsewhere) it did not waddle dumbly into extinction. They were naïve, but not without reason; after all, they had never met a predator. There were, aside from fruit bats, no native mammals on Mauritius.
The dodo has evolved separately from important predators, which has made it unable to fly over time. Thus, when the Portuguese Alfonso of Albuquerque and his men encountered the dodo in 1598, it naively welcomed them, unaware that a century later it would be totally exterminated.
The Dutch did become dodo predators, but contrary to the popular perception, did not hunt the bird into extinction. When they did eat them, it was not very happily; the meat was, according to contemporaneous reports, tough and unappetizing. The real problem was less the humans than what they brought with them. Cats, rats, monkeys, pigs, and other animals the colonists imported by accident or design were likely the ones who killed the bird off by feasting on its eggs and competing with it for food and resources. The dodo remained an easy prey for new arrivals: dogs, rats, pigs, cats and crab macaques. It was not easy to be a dodo in the 17th century! Although, it must be said that these birds liked to build their nests on the ground (made of palm leaves), in which the parents took turns laying their only egg.
The Real Story Of The Dodo Bird's (Current) Extinction
Mauritians are all the descendants of immigrants. This dearth of a mythological record is because, when the Dutch touched down in 1598, they found an uninhabited island, unusual in the dark history of colonialism. Mauritius wasn’t fully settled until 1638, when it became an outpost of the Dutch East India Company. The last dodo sightings were reported in the 1680s. Less than 30 years later, the Dutch abandoned the island. By the time the French claimed Mauritius in 1715, the dodo was gone. Even the descriptions that survived were not granted much respect: The bird’s location was so remote and its physical appearance so unusual, that people dismissed sightings of it as mere fantasy, on par with “the Griffin or the Phoenix,” as the British naturalist H.E. Strickland notes in his 1848 book The Dodo and its Kindred.
The Dodo as a Symbol of Conservation
At a time when species around the world are facing similar threats, the dodo remains a bracing metaphor for ecological degradation-just not the way that we think. “This is the bird of conservation,” says Dr. Tatayah, the Mauritian ecologist who keeps the aforementioned 17th-century woodcut pinned up by his desk.
Read also: History of Cameroon Soccer
The Mauritius Kestrel, a symbol of optimism and conservation efforts.
Perhaps it is the distancing effect of Mauritius’s colonial history-the idea that “they” killed the dodo and not “us”-that makes the popular image of the bird so mordantly jolly. Perhaps any animal that is dead for that long inevitably feels too distant to elicit much feeling.
The Awakening of the Dodo in Mauritius
Because of its overly welcoming nature, the dodo has built a reputation to be a humble, kind and naive animal. Today, the dodo is the national emblem of Mauritius. Children and adults alike carry this cursed bird in their hearts as well as on their t-shirts, stamps, beer labels, and a multitude of objects made of wood, porcelain, plush... The dodo is immortalized everywhere, even on the coat of arms of Mauritius! It is also the logo of the National Society of Zoological Parks. Thus, if the Dodo is indeed an extinct species, it continues to exist in Mauritian culture as a national emblem of the island.
At the end of the tour through the L’Aventure du Sucre, the museum in Mauritius dedicated to the long history of sugar cultivation on the island, there is a cartoon. In it, a tourist couple stares, panel by panel, at meeting places for Hindus, Muslims, Creoles, Chinese, whites, the full melting pot of Mauritian heritage. In the final panel, seemingly exasperated, they ask a man where they can find “the real Mauritians.” He tells them, in so many words, that they’re looking at them.
The Mauritius Kestrel: A New Symbol of Hope
Once the world’s rarest bird of prey, the Mauritius Kestrel will take its place as the national bird of the Republic of Mauritius on March 12, 2022, the country’s 30th anniversary as a republic and 54th as an independent nation.
Read also: Ghana Soccer Jersey
“Mauritius will become famous for preventing wildlife extinctions, not just for historical wildlife extinctions,” said Vikash Tatayah, conservation director for the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, which leads conservation efforts in Mauritius and called for the kestrel’s designation as national bird. “The Mauritius Kestrel is a symbol of our republic, and it is a symbol of optimism and cooperation. Our work to save this species, and many others in our beautiful land, is not yet done, but we know it is possible to do.
The Mauritius Kestrel is a forest-dwelling falcon that evolved to feed primarily on brightly colored Mauritian day-geckos, which it plucks from trees. It may also catch other lizards, small birds and introduced small mammals. Less than 1.5% percent of Mauritius’ native forest remains relatively intact, and the kestrel is further threatened by invasive predators and the loss of suitable nesting cavities.
By the 1970s, only four Mauritius Kestrels remained alive. Habitat destruction, invasive species, and DDT had taken their toll on the unique forest-dwelling bird. Responding to concerns raised by Mauritian citizens, international conservation organizations including the International Council for Bird Preservation (now BirdLife International), Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and The Peregrine Fund sent staff and resources to see what could be done. A pioneering captive breeding program and numerous other interventions began to turn the tide. Today, Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and the Mauritian government lead the efforts, supported by international partners.
“The work on the Mauritius Kestrel, because of the loss of habitat and introduced species, will have to be carefully managed for the foreseeable future. By declaring the Mauritius Kestrel as the national bird, the Government of Mauritius is recognizing its value and making a commitment to care for it and the other wildlife of Mauritius.” said Carl G. Jones, Scientific Director, Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, Chief Scientist, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, and Indianapolis Prize-winner, who started working with the Mauritius Kestrel in the late 1970s and is credited as the individual who refused to give up on the species in its darkest days, against the advice of some experts.
“At the beginning of the project when I studied the last wild birds, I found that they were naturally tame and curious and soon got to know them individually,” said Jones. “During one tropical downpour I sheltered under a cliff overhang, and the kestrel I had been watching joined me and perched on a rocky ledge just a meter away.
Popular articles:
tags: #Mauritius
