Editing Dodo (section)

=== Extinction ===
{{multiple image
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|image1 = Dodos being hunted.jpg
|alt1 = Black and white illustration of men pursuing dodos

|image2 = Pioneers in South Africa (1914) (14576727409).jpg
|alt2 = Colour illustration of men pursuing dodos

|footer = Illustrations of sailors hunting dodos, by [[Joseph Smit]], 1893 (left), and [[Walter Paget (illustrator)|Walter Paget]], 1914 (right). Hunting by humans is not believed to have been the main cause of the bird's [[extinction]] anymore.
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Like many animals that evolved in isolation from significant predators, the dodo was entirely [[island tameness|fearless]] of humans. This fearlessness and its inability to fly made the dodo easy prey, but predation by humans was not the main cause of extinction, contrary to popular belief.<ref>{{cite news | author = BBC | date = 20 November 2003 | title = Scientists pinpoint dodo's demise | work = [[BBC News]] | location = London | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3281323.stm | access-date = 7 September 2006 | ref = {{sfnRef|BBC|2002-11-20}} | archive-date = 4 April 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200404181551/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3281323.stm | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gregory-Kumar |first=David |date=2018 |title=Discover the violent end of the Oxford dodo |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-shropshire-43815169 |access-date=June 26, 2024 |work=[[BBC]]}}</ref> Although some scattered reports describe mass killings of dodos for ships' provisions, archaeological investigations have found scant evidence of human predation. Bones of at least two dodos were found in caves at Baie du Cap that sheltered [[Maroon (people)|fugitive slaves]] and convicts in the 17th century, which would not have been easily accessible to dodos because of the high, broken terrain.<ref name=Janoo2005/> The human population on Mauritius (an area of {{Convert|1860|km2|abbr=on|disp=or}}) never exceeded 50 people in the 17th century, but they introduced other animals, including dogs, pigs, cats, rats, and [[crab-eating macaque]]s, which plundered dodo nests and competed for the limited food resources.<ref name=Hume2017/> At the same time, humans destroyed the forest [[habitat]] of the dodos.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gosling|first1=W.D.|last2=de Kruif|first2=J.|last3=Norder|first3=S.J.|last4=de Boer|first4=E.J.|last5=Hooghiemstra|first5=H.|last6=Rijsdijk|first6=K.F.|last7=McMichael|first7=C.N.|year=2017|title=Mauritius on fire: Tracking historical human impacts on biodiversity loss|journal=Biotropica|volume=49|issue=6|pages=778–783|doi=10.1111/btp.12490|bibcode=2017Biotr..49..778G |url=https://oro.open.ac.uk/52195/1/52195.pdf }}</ref> The impact of the introduced animals on the dodo population, especially the pigs and macaques, is today considered more severe than that of hunting.<ref name=Fryer2002>{{cite news | last = Fryer | first = J. | title = Bringing the dodo back to life | work = [[BBC News]] | location = London | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2255991.stm | access-date = 7 September 2006 | date = 14 September 2002 | archive-date = 7 May 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190507123209/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/2255991.stm | url-status = live }}</ref> Rats were perhaps not much of a threat to the nests, since dodos would have been used to dealing with local [[land crabs]].{{sfn|Cheke|Hume|2008|p=79}}

It has been suggested that the dodo may already have been rare or localised before the arrival of humans on Mauritius, since it would have been unlikely to become extinct so rapidly if it had occupied all the remote areas of the island.{{sfn|Fuller|2002|p=41}} A 2005 expedition found subfossil remains of dodos and other animals killed by a [[flash flood]]. Such [[mass mortalities]] would have further jeopardised a species already in danger of becoming extinct.<ref>{{cite web | last = Cocks | first = T. | year = 2006 | title = Natural disaster may have killed dodos | website = [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] | agency = [[Reuters]] | url = http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_1678225.htm | access-date = 30 August 2006 | archive-date = 15 May 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130515110620/http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/ancient/AncientRepublish_1678225.htm | url-status = live }}</ref> Yet the fact that the dodo survived hundreds of years of volcanic activity and climatic changes shows the bird was resilient within its ecosystem.<ref name=Rijsdijk2016/>

Some controversy surrounds the date of its extinction. The last widely accepted record of a dodo sighting is the 1662 report by shipwrecked mariner Volkert Evertsz of the Dutch ship ''[[Arnhem (ship)|Arnhem]]'', who described birds caught on a small islet off Mauritius, now suggested to be [[Islets of Mauritius#Île D'Ambre|Amber Island]]:
{{quotation |These animals on our coming up to them stared at us and remained quiet where they stand, not knowing whether they had wings to fly away or legs to run off, and suffering us to approach them as close as we pleased. Amongst these birds were those which in India they call Dod-aersen (being a kind of very big goose); these birds are unable to fly, and instead of wings, they merely have a few small pins, yet they can run very swiftly. We drove them together into one place in such a manner that we could catch them with our hands, and when we held one of them by its leg, and that upon this it made a great noise, the others all on a sudden came running as fast as they could to its assistance, and by which they were caught and made prisoners also.<ref>{{cite web | last = Cheke | first = Anthony S. | year = 2004 | title = The Dodo's last island | publisher = Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius | url = http://dodobooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Cheke-2004-DodosLastIsland.pdf | access-date = 12 May 2012 | archive-date = 28 March 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160328040044/http://dodobooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Cheke-2004-DodosLastIsland.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref>}}

The dodos on this islet may not necessarily have been the last members of the species.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Roberts | first1 = D. L. | title = Refuge-effect hypothesis and the demise of the Dodo | doi = 10.1111/cobi.12134 | journal = Conservation Biology | volume = 27 | issue = 6 | pages = 1478–1480 | year = 2013 | pmid = 23992554| bibcode = 2013ConBi..27.1478R | s2cid = 39987650 }}</ref> The last claimed sighting of a dodo was reported in the hunting records of [[Isaac Johannes Lamotius]] in 1688. A 2003 [[statistical analysis]] of these records by the biologists David L. Roberts and Andrew R. Solow gave a new estimated extinction date of 1693, with a 95% [[confidence interval]] of 1688–1715. These authors also pointed out that because the last sighting before 1662 was in 1638, the dodo was probably already quite rare by the 1660s, and thus a disputed report from 1674 by an escaped slave could not be dismissed out of hand.<ref>{{cite journal| doi = 10.1038/426245a| last1 = Roberts | first1 = D. L.| last2 = Solow | first2 = A. R.| date=November 2003 | title = Flightless birds: When did the dodo become extinct?| journal = Nature| volume = 426| issue = 6964| page = 245| pmid = 14628039|bibcode = 2003Natur.426..245R | s2cid = 4347830 | doi-access = free}}</ref>

{{multiple image
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|image1 = Aphanapteryx bonasia.JPG
|alt1 = Drawing of a dodo, a one horned sheep and a red rail

|image2 = AphanapteryxBonasia.JPG
|alt2 = 

|footer = [[Pieter van den Broecke]]'s 1617 drawing of a dodo, a one-horned sheep, and a red rail; after the dodo became extinct, visitors may have confused it with the red rail (1907 restoration of that bird at right by [[Frederick William Frohawk]])
}}

The British ornithologist [[Alfred Newton]] suggested in 1868 that the name of the dodo was transferred to the red rail after the former had gone extinct.<ref name="NewtonA.">{{cite journal |last1=Newton |first1=A. |title=Recent ornithological publications |journal=Ibis |date=1868 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=479–482 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/55161#page/507/mode/1up |access-date=22 July 2020 |archive-date=3 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703005306/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/55161#page/507/mode/1up |url-status=live }}</ref> Cheke also pointed out that some descriptions after 1662 use the names "Dodo" and "Dodaers" when referring to the red rail, indicating that they had been transferred to it.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Cheke | first1 = A. S. | editor1-last = Diamond | editor1-first = A. W. | doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511735769.003 | chapter = An ecological history of the Mascarene Islands, with particular reference to extinctions and introductions of land vertebrates | title = Studies of Mascarene Island Birds | url = https://archive.org/details/studiesmascarene00diam | url-access = limited | pages = [https://archive.org/details/studiesmascarene00diam/page/n11 5]–89 | year = 1987 | isbn = 978-0-521-11331-1 | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | ref = {{sfnRef|Cheke in Diamond|1987}} }}</ref> He therefore pointed to the 1662 description as the last credible observation. A 1668 account by English traveller John Marshall, who used the names "Dodo" and "Red Hen" interchangeably for the red rail, mentioned that the meat was "hard", which echoes the description of the meat in the 1681 account.<ref name=Cheke2006>{{cite journal| doi = 10.1111/j.1474-919X.2006.00478.x| last = Cheke | first = A. S.| year = 2006| title = Establishing extinction dates&nbsp;– the curious case of the Dodo ''Raphus cucullatus'' and the Red Hen ''Aphanapteryx bonasia''| journal = Ibis| volume = 148| pages = 155–158}}</ref> Even the 1662 account has been questioned by the writer [[Errol Fuller]], as the reaction to distress cries matches what was described for the red rail.{{sfn|Fuller|2002|pp=70–73}} Until this explanation was proposed, a description of "dodos" from 1681 was thought to be the last account, and that date still has proponents.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Jackson | first1 = A. | title = Added credence for a late Dodo extinction date | doi = 10.1080/08912963.2013.838231 | journal = Historical Biology | volume = 26 | issue = 6 | pages = 1–3 | year = 2013 | s2cid = 83701682 }}</ref>

Cheke stated in 2014 that then recently accessible Dutch manuscripts indicate that no dodos were seen by settlers in 1664–1674.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cheke|first1=Anthony S.|title=Speculation, statistics, facts and the Dodo's extinction date|journal=Historical Biology|volume=27|issue=5|year=2014|pages=1–10|doi=10.1080/08912963.2014.904301|s2cid=83978250}}</ref> In 2020, Cheke and the British researcher Jolyon C. Parish suggested that all mentions of dodos after the mid-17th century instead referred to red rails, and that the dodo had disappeared due to predation by [[feral pigs]] during a hiatus in settlement of Mauritius (1658–1664). The dodo's extinction therefore was not realised at the time, since new settlers had not seen real dodos, but as they expected to see flightless birds, they referred to the red rail by that name instead. Since red rails probably had larger clutches than dodos and their eggs could be incubated faster, and their nests were perhaps concealed, they probably bred more efficiently, and were less vulnerable to pigs.<ref name="Saga">{{cite journal |last1=Cheke |first1=A. S. |last2=Parish |first2=J. C. |title=The Dodo and the Red Hen, a saga of extinction, misunderstanding, and name transfer: a review |journal=Quaternary |date=2020 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=4 |doi=10.3390/quat3010004|doi-access=free |bibcode=2020Quat....3....4C }}</ref>

It is unlikely the issue will ever be resolved, unless late reports mentioning the name alongside a physical description are rediscovered.{{sfn|Cheke|Hume|2008|p=79}} The [[IUCN Red List]] accepts Cheke's rationale for choosing the 1662 date, taking all subsequent reports to refer to red rails. In any case, the dodo was probably extinct by 1700, about a century after its discovery in 1598.<ref name=IUCN2012>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=''Raphus cucullatus'' |volume=2016 |page=e.T22690059A93259513 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22690059A93259513.en |access-date=11 November 2021 |ref={{sfnRef|IUCN Red List|2012}}}}</ref><ref name=Cheke2006/> The Dutch left Mauritius in 1710, but by then the dodo and most of the large terrestrial vertebrates there had become extinct.<ref name=Hume2017/>

Even though the rareness of the dodo was reported already in the 17th century, its extinction was not recognised until the 19th century. This was partly because, for religious reasons, extinction was not believed possible until later proved so by [[Georges Cuvier]], and partly because many scientists doubted that the dodo had ever existed. It seemed altogether too strange a creature, and many believed it a myth. The bird was first used as an example of human-induced extinction in ''Penny Magazine'' in 1833, and has since been referred to as an "icon" of extinction.<ref name=Turvey2008>{{cite journal| doi = 10.1080/08912960802376199| last1 = Turvey | first1 = S. T.| last2 = Cheke | first2 = A. S.| year = 2008| title = Dead as a dodo: The fortuitous rise to fame of an extinction icon| journal = Historical Biology| volume = 20| issue = 2| pages = 149–163| bibcode = 2008HBio...20..149T | s2cid = 6257901 }}</ref><ref name="nomenclature">{{cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Mark T |last2=Hume |first2=Julian P |last3=Day |first3=Michael O |last4=Douglas |first4=Robert P |last5=Simmons |first5=Zoë M |last6=White |first6=Judith |last7=Heller |first7=Markus O |last8=Gostling |first8=Neil J |title=The systematics and nomenclature of the Dodo and the Solitaire (Aves: Columbidae), and an overview of columbid family-group nomina |journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |date=2024 |volume=201 |issue=4 |doi=10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae086|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=1 June 1833 |title=The Dodo |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_knights-penny-magazine_1833-06-01_2_75/ |journal=The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge |volume=2 |issue=75 |pages=209–211 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>