The Dodo - Raphus Cuccullatus

'As dead as the dodo!'

Credit goes to this bird which put Mauritius, for the first time, on the world map. Though extinct for more than 300 years now (between 1681 - 1691), it still continues to stir amazement in visitors at the National History Museum in Port Louis. First great icon of extinction, the dodo, which lived only on Mauritius, had lost the power of flight because food was abundant and predators were absent.

One of the skeletons on display is unique in the sense that all bones come from one individual bird which was found by E.Thirioux,a barber, at the foot of Le Pouce Mountain in 1900.

Did you know ?

The extinction of the dodo, within 80 years of its discovery, made man realise for the first time that he could induce the extinction of plants and animals.