![]() "Although the difference is a bit academic," Jackson said, since the dodo is extinct either way, "I think it's a serendipitous spin-off to research."Įmail Douglas Main or follow him on Twitter or Google+. Harry's "ability as an observer is not the issue, he saw/ate a bird he was told by the locals was a 'dodo,' and naturally that's what he called it in his account this does not make him 'unreliable,'" Cheke wrote in an email.īut another scientist (and artist) who has studied the extinction of dodos, Julian Hume, said he believes that dodos went extinct by about 1690, and that Harry was certainly "no fool." However, it is "presumptuous for anyone to suggest what Harry did or did not see almost 350 years after the event," he added. The first recorded mention of the dodo was by Dutch sailors in 1598. ![]() The dodos appearance in life is evidenced only by drawings, paintings, and written accounts from the 17th century. Scientists are piecing together clues about the life of the dodo, hundreds of years after the flightless bird was. RMRJABP1 The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. By the 1660s, Cheke said, dodos had already gone extinct on the main island of Mauritius, and the name "dodo" had been transferred to a similar flightless species now known as a red rail. The dodo lived on the island of Mauritius until it died out about 350 years ago. However, independent ornithologist Anthony Cheke said that he wasn't swayed by the study and maintains that the last reliable sighting of dodos was indeed on an island off Mauritius in 1662. ![]() "People didn't appreciate Harry was a great scientist, and his observations shouldn't be dismissed," Jackson said. But that record, combined with what Jackson calls Harry's high-quality work, suggests dodos were still around at this time, he said. But Harry's observations agree with those from another hunting journal from 1688 that recorded dodos being killed, although some have said that the term for dodo is too similar to another island bird to know for sure. Previously, however, some scholars had dismissed Harry's observations - since they were "anecdotal" and his other high-quality observations weren't well known - and it was generally thought that the dodo had vanished by 1662 from their last stronghold on an island off Mauritius, Jackson said. artist who gave us powerful songs like Jabana Roorroo, Itti Muddi and Didi. That didn't stop Europeans from hunting the flightless bird to extinction (though introduced pigs and possibly other invasive species also played a role). The dodo ( Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic. Among the feathery beasts being feasted upon were dodos, whose flesh, he noted, was quite hard. Jackson came across these writings while looking at Harry's magnetic field work. Harry also took notes in 1681 about what birds were being eaten near Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean east of Africa, while his ship was docked in the area. Though Harry is little-known, he shouldn't be, Jackson said: Besides his important and detailed geomagnetic recordings, he made detailed drawings of the Great Comet of 1680, one of the brightest in recorded history, which could be seen even during daytime and with the naked eye, for about three months. Dodo Illustration Artist: Unknown circa 17th Century The dodo Raphus cucullatus is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius.
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