THE DODO

he dodo is the most famous

Be ctince species in the history no match for the cunning, domesti
pets of Europe and within less than
of planet Earth. Its first contact with
a 100 years after the first landing of
Europeans was in 1598, when a
van Neck and his band of adventurers,
Dutch expedition headed by Admiral
the dodo was extinct -- the last egg
acob Cornelius van Neck landed on
devoured, no doubt, byan overstuffed fat
whose ancestors had emigrated
from the sewers of Amsterdam: with
the original Dutch colonists.

The popular image of a fat and

Stupid creature comes from the
bird, now Tawa known as the celebrated painting of the dodoby Jan
dodo (from the Dutch word ‘dodoor’
Savery (1589-1654). On his visits to
‘meaning sluggard). The demise of the
the Oxford University Museum, Lewis
dodo has beenenattributedroute to tothehungrySpice Carroll was inspired by this
image and
Dutch sailors
Islands of Indonesia. They would take the only remaining dodo skull and a
dinner break on the tropical island claw (both are still on display there),
‘and consume the defenceless dodo, to create his own fictional version for
but it was clearly an acquired taste ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’
as the sailors named it ‘valghvogel’- - “When they had been running half
meaning disgusting bird. an hour or so, the dodo suddenly
The island of Mauritius is only 10 called out, ‘The race is over’, and they
“million years old and until the arrival all crowded round it, panting, and
of European settlers, there were no asking, ‘But who has won?”
island predators to threaten the easy- That image of the weird, flightless,
80ing existence of the dodo, a bird dim-witted dodo is now pbelne
_that had evolved from the African challenged by contempora
fruit-eating pigeons of the genus research. Dr mares Kitchener has
Treron’ This benign, predator free created two life-size re luctio
Paradise had allowed the dodo to the dodo —one is housed in the Royal
Evolve into a trian bird with Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh
tiny wings inate to rise even a few and the other is in the Oxford |
inches off the ground. The dodo was University Museum. They are based

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