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? Disappeared several centuries ago, this big clumsy bird, unable to fly and persecuted by man, has been resurrected and is now represented everywhere in Mauritian culture.
Here is the story of this strange bird, which has become a symbol of 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. A popular belief is that the author chose this particular animal because of his own stuttering that made him introduce himself as "Do-do-Dodgson".
The bird came from an equally wonderful country: Mauritius. 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. It could come from both Dutch and Portuguese, having discovered Mauritius before the Dutch, but without mentioning the bird.
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. Its head was black, with a blue and a red spot on the lower mandible at the end of its long, hooked beak.
It was described as a slow animal, large, almost cubic and never seeming to flee from humans - this characteristic was to be fatal to it!
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 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. Unfortunately, it didn't take much for the newborn (or unborn) to be trampled on or eaten by other animals.
After countless preying, the last dodo died in 1681...
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. Completely harmless, it was attacked indefinitely when the predators arrived, after having lived only respectively on his island.
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. An association dealing with species conservation, nature protection, and education in the preservation of biodiversity.
Sometimes described as a stupid and funny animal since the famous Roelandt Savery painting (1626) exhibited in the Oxford University Museum, the dodo is also found in literature and in many films, animated TV series, and video games.
Thus, if the Dodo is indeed an extinct species, it continues to exist in Mauritian culture as a national emblem of the island. The extinction of the Dodo is now an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of protecting biodiversity, particularly the endemic species of Mauritius.
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