The Extinct Dodo of Mauritius Trivia Quiz

Answer: Africa/Asia

The most popular theory is that a species of Treron fruit-eating pigeon from either Africa or Asia migrated to the island chain. If the African theory is correct, the pigeon most likely used Madagascar as a stepping-stone. If the Asian theory is correct, the pigeon crossed the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean by way of a series of now-submerged volcanic islands. Due to an absence of predators and an abundance of food, the species stayed on, shedded its wings, grew bigger and fatter, and lost its instinctive wariness.

The end results were the solitaires of Reunion and Rodrigues Islands (Raphus solitarius, Pezophaps solitaria) and the famous dodo of Mauritius (Raphus cucullatus).

- Madagascar lies east of Mozambique, mainland Africa.
- Mauritius, with an area of 750 sq. miles, lies about 550 miles east of Madagascar.
- Reunion, with an area of about 1000 sq. miles, is located about 120 miles southwest of Mauritius.
- Rodrigues, a small 46 sq. mile island, is about 350 miles to the east of Mauritius.

Answer: The Dutch

Between the 7th and 10th centuries, Arab navigators visited Mauritius but did not stay there. In the early 1500's, Portuguese sailors rediscovered the area but left no detailed records of their visits.
On September 17, 1598, Vice-Admiral Wybrandt van Warwijck commanded a fleet of ships that landed on the southern part of Mauritius. The Dutch eventually ruled the island for over 100 years, abandoning Mauritius in 1710. The French took over in 1715 and in a subsequent war, lost control of the island to the British in 1810. During each occupation, the forests were stripped, crops were planted, and predatorial rats, cats, dogs, and monkeys were introduced. Most of the indigenous fauna were driven to extinction or near-extinction. Mauritius eventually lost more than half (24/45) of its known bird species.

The dodo died out between 1662-1690 and the solitaires were gone by the mid to late 1700's.

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Most of the known information about the dodo comes from the journals of Dutch explorers and colonists.

1598 - "...a strange and grotesque specimen of a bird as large as a swan...bearing a ridiculous bent bill." (Van Warwijck's fleet: Second Book of Van Neck's Expedition, 1601)

1601 - "The bird has a body like an ostrich, a great head and on the head a veil as if it was wearing a hood." (Wolphaert Harmanszoon's fleet: Van Heemskirk, Gelderland's Journal 51)

1602 - Between July and August, Capt. Wilhelm Van Westzanen and his crew captured between 70-100 dodos to be used as food. (Van Heemskirk's fleet: Van Westzanen's journal "Voyage to the East Indies Amsterdam 1648"). The dodo inadvertently contributed to its own demise due to its natural curiosity of the newcomers. Also, the noise made by one captured bird often caused other dodos to instinctively rush TOWARDS the sound in hopes of rescuing their brethren. Thus the rest were easily caught.

1606 - Adm. Matelieff de Zonge described the dodo and also noted that rats and monkeys were now common on Mauritius. (Matelieff de Zonge's fleet and journal)

1607 - During ship repairs at Port Louis, Adms. Van der Hagen and Van Warwijck camped out with their crews and subsisted on dodos, pigeons, turtles, and parrots. (Van der Hagen's journal)

1611 - Adm. Pieter Willemsz Verhoeven anchored at Port South-East where his crew ate pigeons, doves, parrots, and dodos. (Teylandt's Mauritius: P.W. Verhoeven's fleet.*See below.)

1627 - "...the dodo whose body is big and round. Some have their head capped with a dark down, some had the top of their head bald and whitish...They have a long and curved bill...it is greenish yellow." (Teylandt's Mauritius: Thomas Herbert's Relation of Some Years Travels in Africa and Asia, 1677)

1628 to 1634 - "The dodos are twice as big as a goose." (Peter Mundy's Travel Journal 1628-1634)

1638 - "I have seen in Mauritius birds bigger than swans, with no feathers, covered only with a black down. They are not as tasty as moorhens. They have only one egg as big as a penny bun and against it they put a white stone the size of a chicken egg. They lay their egg on a nest of grass in the forest." (Francois Cauche)

1662 - "We found here a crowd of wild goat's milk cheeses and the most various birds, which are very safe (and) savage, undoubtedly owing to the fact that they are not accustomed to seeing human being. They are held quiet, observing us and enabling us even to approach them. It was reported to us that the Indians know them as 'a Dodderse', they are larger than geese, but inapt for the flight, having only embryos of wings; however, they are able to run quickly." (Account of Volkert Evertszen, or Volquard Iversen, while marooned on Mauritius for a short time.*See below)

1674 - A recaptured runaway slave named Simon reported that he spent 11 years in the wild (1663-1674) and saw dodos ONLY TWICE. (Dutch Governor Hugo's journal)

1681 - Chief-mate Benjamin Harry of the "Berkeley Castle" reported "...first of winged and feathered fowls, the less passant are Dodos whose flesh is very hard." (Benjamin Harry's Journal, British Museum)

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*(Dutchman) Volkert Evertszen and his crew were marooned on the east side of Mauritius on February 11, 1662 after a storm destroyed his vessels. Although the dodo was a forest bird, not a shorebird as thought, Evertszen did not see any dodos on the Mauritius mainland. He did find the birds on small islets off the coast, possibly Ile aux Cerfs (east), Ilot Mangenie (east), or Ile d' Ambre (northeast). He and his crew subsisted on dodo until rescue came a while later. Evertszen's written account of 1662 is considered the LAST RELIABLE RECORD of a human witness to live dodos before their untimely extinction.

**The reports of all the Dutch Captains and Admirals who visited the Mascarene Islands lay undisturbed in the La Haye (The Hague, Netherlands) Archives until 1873, when Leopold Estourgies copied and translated them into French and sent the completed manuscripts to Charles Leon Doyen in Mauritius. But Doyen died before he could write a history on Mauritius, whereupon Albert Pitot acquired the manuscripts and used them to write his book "Teylandt's Mauritius" in 1905.

Answer: The beak

Because of its outlandish appearance, the dodo attracted more attention than the solitaires did. The drawings and paintings of the dodo show a LARGE BEAK with the upper portion hooking down over the lower. No historical descriptions of the dodo ever indicated the precise purpose of the hooked beak. It has been surmised that it served to break open food sources inaccessible to other animals. It may also have been essential for defence against minor predators.

The most famous illustrations of the dodo were painted by Dutch artist Roelandt Savery in the early 1600's. Savery's paintings actually portrayed a collection of birds with the dodo prominent, due possibly to its size. His dodo paintings ceased in 1628 and he died in a Utrecht asylum in 1639.

While most popular illustrations of the dodo such as Savery's show a fat turkey-like bird that supposedly "waddled" around, early drawings made by Dutch eyewitnesses such as George Hoefnagel (1600) showed a STOUT BUT LESS FLABBY bird. Some eyewitness accounts did present the dodo as overly fat but that may have been due to the bird taking on extra nutrition for the coming winter months. Savery never did visit Mauritius and see the dodo firsthand. What he and other European illustrators may have seen were captive dodos that were overfed and kept in cramped quarters during their long journey from Mauritius to Europe. In addition, Volkert Evertszen reported in 1662 that the dodos were "fast" runners.

No drawings or bones of the Reunion solitaire exist, only vague descriptions of a whitish-coloured bird that once lived on the island. Commonly referred to as the "white dodo", it may have been confused with the very real Reunion sacred ibis (Threskiornis solitarius), a whitish, slender bird with long legs that was discovered by the Portuguese in 1613. The ibis likely became extinct in the early 1700's.

In addition to bones, there exists an actual drawing of the Rodrigues solitaire. The only known illustration was made around 1700 by Francois Leguat, a French Huguenot refugee who was marooned with others on Rodrigues Island from May 1,1691 to May 21,1693. During his two year stay, he saw and described the solitaire in detail. His drawing shows a plump bird not unlike the dodo but with a straighter beak similar to a pigeon's. Arriving in Mauritius in mid 1693, Leguat did not include the dodo in his list of birds he saw on the island, leading many researchers to suspect that the dodo was LIKELY EXTINCT by then.

Only three museums in the world have bones of the Rodrigues solitaire:
The Natural History Museum of Mauritius (complete skeleton of a single individual).
The Natural History Museum of Paris, France.
The Andersonia Museum of Glasgow, Scotland.
Unlike the dodo, however, no mounted specimen of the Rodrigues solitaire exists.

Answer: The head and one foot

The head and foot of the "Oxford dodo", the best preserved examples of the bird itself, have since been transferred to Oxford University's Museum of Zoology. Recently, Oxford researchers analyzed DNA from the foot tissue and was able confirm the dodo's relationship with the pigeon. The closest living dodo relatives are the Nicobar pigeon of Southeast Asia, the crowned pigeons of New Guinea, and the tooth-billed pigeon of Samoa. The dodo, solitaire, and nicobar pigeon shared a common ancestor about 40 million years ago.

All current dodo skeletons, except one, are compositions. The only complete skeleton of a single individual is on display in the Natural History Museum of Mauritius in Port Louis. In late 2005, a team of Dutch and Mauritian researchers announced that they had found, in a sugar plantation area called the "Mare aux Songes" swamp, a buried cache of about 700 dodo bones, representing about 20 specimens.

Formerly volcanic, Mauritius and Rodrigues were formed about 7 million and 2 million years ago respectively. Reunion is about 5 million years old.

There exists a dodo left foot in London's Natural History Museum, parts of a dodo head in Copenhagen, Denmark, and bits of a dodo head in Prague, Czech Republic.

Answer: Lewis Carroll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), was likely aware of the museum's dodo relics when he wrote the story. He often visited the Museum accompanied by his child-friends Lorina, Edith, and Alice Liddell, the daughters of Dean Liddell, Head of Christchurch. Carroll later commissioned John Tenniel to do the illustrations for the book, which eventually became hugely popular. Tenniel's drawings of the bird and the numerous paintings by Roelandt Savery have combined to establish the dodo as THE most recognized and popular bird of all even though it's been extinct for over 300 years.

The dodo was one of Carroll's favourite characters. Letters from his surname (DODgsOn) spell out the word "dodo".

Answer: Mauritius red hen

The Mauritius red hen (Aphanapteryx bonasia) was a large slender rail. From descriptions, paintings, and recovered bones, it appeared that the hen was reddish-brown with short wings and long legs. Reported by Francois Leguat as being very rare during his visit in the 1690's, the red hen likely vanished by the early 1700's.

A smaller greyish-coloured bird related to the red hen, the Rodrigues rail (Aphanapteryx leguati) was also known as "Leguat's gelinote" in honour of the seafarer. Dying out around 1761, its existence is known only from some bones and two written descriptions.

The Mauritius night heron (Nycticorax mauritianus) is known from a few fossil bones. It too likely died out around 1700.

The Mascarene swan (Sarcidiornis mauritania) was last observed and recorded around 1670.

Answer: The solitaire was good, the dodo was bad

Francois Leguat reported in 1708 that he frequently enjoyed "roast solitaire".
Sir Thomas Herbert commented in 1634 that "The dodo...they are offensive and of no nourishment".
Commenting on the dodo, the Gelderland Journal of 1601 contains the words "...in spite of long cookings, their flesh remains very coriace (coarse)..."

Like the solitaire, the Mauritius red hen was considered delicious by the colonists.

Although the dodo did not taste good compared to other fowl, it was nevertheless harvested as a food source by the Dutch colonists. This, in addition to the introduction of predators such as rats and pigs, ensured the end of the dodo.

Answer: A large stone

There were detailed eyewitness accounts of dodos swallowing stones to help it digest its food. There is also a crude drawing of "A Dodo with Stone" by (one) Clusius, copied from a woodcut in Van Neck's Journal (1605). The actual stone was about one inch in diameter. The size of the stone varied from one to three inches.
This phenomenon of stone-swallowing continues today among some bird species of the world.

Answer: A Turkey

Temple fed 17 tambalacoque fruits to some wild turkeys. The seeds of three fruit germinated but definitive results were inconclusive. Although rare, a few hundred trees currently exist on Mauritius. The precise relationship between the dodo and the tambalacoque tree is still undetermined.

Answer: The southeast coast

In 1865, a resident schoolmaster named George Clark was curious to know whether the swamp, known for tortoise bones, might also contain dodo remains. With the permission of sugar plantation landowner Monsieur de Bissy, Clark searched the swamp with the help of de Bissy's plantation workers. He eventually found a treasure trove of dodo bones commonly believed to be the result of a historic flash flood in the area that killed a quantity of the birds. Currently located close to the swamp is the island's international airport.

Ironically, it was on the southeast coast of Mauritius where the Dutch first landed in 1598 (see Q.2).

The "Mare aux Songes" swamp is responsible for most of the complete dodo skeletons on display in the world's museums. Some dodo bones have also been found close to Grand Bay on the northern tip of Mauritius.

Chronology of important dates regarding the dodo:
1505 - The Portuguese discover Mauritius and see the dodo.
1598 - The Dutch colonize Mauritius and provide written descriptions of the dodo.
1662 - Last eyewitness account of living dodos (Volkert Evertszen).
1681 - Last mention of the dodo in a travel journal (Benjamin Harry).
1693 - Possibly extinct; no mention of seeing the dodo (Francois Leguat).
1755 - Last known dodo specimen burned; head and one foot saved from the fire.
1863 - George Clark excavates dodo bones from the "Mare aux Songes".
1863 - Lewis Carroll publishes "Alice in Wonderland" and the dodo becomes more popular.
2005 - Researchers find a buried collection of 20 dodos.

This quiz is dedicated to:
- My children, Rebecca and Benjamin.
- The islands of Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Reunion.
- Francois Leguat (1639 - 1735).
- Roelandt Savery (1576 - 1639).
- Raphus cucullatus, the amazing dodo.

Food for thought: If by some stroke of luck Mauritius and Rodrigues had remained uncolonized, how much further would the dodo and solitaire have evolved and how would they appear? Intriguing, but unfortunately we will never know. At present, over 90% of Mauritius's original forestry is gone, making the possibility of live dodos unlikely. It can be safely stated that some time between 1662-1690, the last member of an EXTRAORDINARY EVOLUTIONARY SPECIES lay down and died.

Note: This quiz on the dodo is the second. The honour of the first dodo quiz (April 26, 2001) goes to FT. member "Mamma".

Thank you for playing my seventh quiz creation.