Here is my contribution to the Rare 2011: Anthro Calendar, which features extinct anthros for this year. My choice was the Dodo, because I have a particular fondness for birds in the pigeon/dove family, which of course includes the dodo. This illustration depicts a mated dodo pair that have been out in the tropical sunshine, foraging for their favorite berries (those of the tambalacoque tree, with which the dodos lived in "obligate mutualism", and which is now nearly extinct, since there are no longer any dodos to germinate the seeds), leaving their nest covered with downy feathers, but otherwise unprotected. They had no natural predators, and the day was warm, so they felt no need to stay and constantly brood their two eggs. They had noticed a strange shape out in the ocean passing by their part of the shoreline, but they couldn't comprehend what it was, so they put it out of mind, even though it made them a bit uneasy.

Now as the sun is waning, they've arrived back at their nest, only to find it plundered, one egg cracked in half (by nimble fingers) and licked dry of its precious yolk, and the other missing entirely. As the female drops her basket of berries and kneels beside the nest, keening in sorrow and despair, the male, in shock, and furious, notices movement in the casuarina branches and sees two lithe figures escaping away in the trees, far too swift and out of reach for him to try to pursue. He screams his rage after the thieves, shattering the peace of the ocean-side forest, and one of the creatures, while clutching the remaining egg, turns to mock him, hooting with bared fangs and a fierce grimace. Then they both are soon out of sight among the foliage. And out upon the waves, that strange shape can be seen again, now moving away. Little do these poor, noble birds realize that what they've experienced here is the "beginning of the end" of not only their way of life, but of their entire race.

Another point I'm trying to achieve with this illustration is to do away with the centuries-old misconceptions of the dodo as a grossly obese, dim-witted, defenseless feathered blob that could do little more than waddle, and therefore could not escape any predators, had it even the sense to run away. Dodos were, in fact, lean, long-legged and fast runners for their bulky size, according to the eye witnesses who made the very first sketches of them (more than a dozen of these still exist).

They were also reported to give a viscous bite if grabbed, or when protecting their eggs and young. They weren't "easy prey", but being flightless, and ground-nesting, their eggs were very easy for predators to reach, and dodos weren't used to having predators at all. The only animals larger than them on the island were the peaceful giant tortoises (also over-exploited to extinction). They lived an idyllic life on their island paradise until the explorers/traders arrived in their ships with their pet monkeys (crab-eating macaques), cats, dogs, pigs, and stow-away rats. These creatures were let loose (and some left behind) on the island of Mauritius, and wrecked havoc on the unsuspecting dodos, pillaging their vulnerable nests, and also upon the solitaire birds of the neighboring islands of Reunion and Rodriguez. (Actually, all animals that lay eggs near the ground surface are vulnerable, which is why so many birds have become extinct in modern times.)

And of course, the humans themselves took their own share of the birds (as well as cleared the forests where the dodos lived, once they had settled there, and continually stressed the birds with their presence, so that the dodos could no longer breed and nest in peace). But dodo meat was said to be "nauseating, tough and stringy" rather than fatty (in fact, the sailors nicknamed it "valghvogel", meaning "disgusting bird"), thus the birds and their young mainly fell prey to the animals the humans had introduced. Still, accounts claim that men brought as many as 50 large birds on board their ship a day, and often about half were dodos (the rest being solitaires and other birds). "The slaughter was great because this very 'remarkable bird existed in considerable abundance' on these islands". Dodos went extinct only 174 years after being discovered, the last egg devoured, no doubt, by an overstuffed rat whose ancestors had emigrated from the sewers of Amsterdam with the original Dutch colonists.

The reason the dodos appear fat in most of the old illustrations of them is because the few dodos that were captured and brought home to Europe were fed on sea biscuits and weevils during the long voyage, and grew very plump on that diet, especially while kept in cages, without any exercise (they were used to constantly foraging back on Mauritius). So the Europeans who saw the dodos first saw them as being extremely fat and barely able to walk, and so drew them that way. And when the last one of these imported dodos died, it was stuffed to be just as fat (by English naturalist John Tradescant), and displayed that way for many years. When Tradescant died in 1662, his entire natural history collection was bequeathed to an acquaintance, Elias Ashmole. Because of Ashmole's irresponsibility, the entire collection's condition greatly deteriorated, and he donated the bird to Oxford University in 1683--two years after the last living dodo was seen on Mauritius.

But even Oxford did not take very good care of the bird, allowing it to get so musty, that "the museum's board of directors took one look at the dusty, stupid-looking bird and unanimously voted to discard it". It was later burned as trash in 1755 (with no thought for future generations!), except for the head and foot, thanks to the foresight of the museum curator who saved and preserved them. The intrigue over the bird was such that by 1800 "professional naturalists were casting doubt on written descriptions of the bird, as well as on extant drawings. It became scientific vogue to deny the bird's existence and to challenge the Oxford head and foot as fakes". If it was a genuine bird, the critics reasoned, certainly there would have been extensive efforts to preserve it--or at least a good skeleton!

A group of zoologists in 1850 traveled to Mauritius looking for bones--and found none. Soon the dodo was denounced as a scientific fraud. Evidence did not surface until a resident of Mauritius, George Clark, searched the island and in time discovered numerous scattered bones. His specimens were soon shipped to major museums, and after study were pronounced authentic. These researchers later attempted to assemble the bone fragments--many in poor condition--into complete dodo skeletons. They are now of course regarded as real animals, but the many other myths surrounding them have died slowly.

Since that time, hundreds of dodo bones that have been unearthed, and using methods developed by criminologists and archaeologists to reconstruct flesh on bones, the archeologist Kitchener was able to determine that the skeletal pattern produced a bird "remarkably similar to the first drawing of the dodo", namely, the thinner birds. He concluded that "according to four different methods, all based on the dodo's bones, the famous flightless pigeon weighed between 10.6 and 17.5 kilograms". Evaluation of the cantilever strength of leg bones produces a relationship which can be used to determine the running abilities of different sized animals. This method revealed good evidence for the conclusion that they were indeed "swift of foot"--a conclusion which corresponds with the eyewitness accounts.

Since Kitchener's first evaluation, original unpublished dodo drawings completed between 1601 and 1602 were rediscovered in a museum in The Hague, Netherlands. These showed that Kitchener's conclusions were correct--the dodo was thinner and the femur design was tilted downwards, reducing the bending forces on it and allowing it to shift its center of gravity. This evidence demonstrates that the dodo was an effective, fast runner. Kitchener concludes, "for more than 350 years, the dodo has been thoroughly misrepresented as plump and immobile. The reality is, however, that in the forests of Mauritius it was lithe and active. Like other Mauritian birds, it would have undergone a seasonal fat cycle to overcome shortages of food, but never to the extent that all those wonderful oil paintings suggest".

In conclusion, rather than demonstrate the weakness and inferiority of the dodo, their history effectively demonstrates the gross irresponsibility of their caretakers. According to Panati, "not a single naturalist had attempted to mate any of the captive dodos; they left no descendants".

(The above info was quoted/paraphrased/condensed from various online articles.)

Anyway, I'm deeply honored to be a part of this project, and if you would like order the calendar, please go to the website, where you can also find details on the other awesome artists involved and view their artwork for the project (they've each put a lot of effort into this!). The price of the calendar is $22 plus S&H, which is a good price considering that each image therein would collectively cost over $150 if purchased as individual prints--and all the images are frame-worthy! The 12-month calendar is full-color, 8.5 x 11 inches, 100 lb gloss cover, 80 lb matte text inside pages, and includes unique cover art as well as a full page centerfold. Calendars will be available for order until August 31st; after August 31st, there will be a limited number for sale through individual artists either online or in person. Copies may be available at the following conventions:

MFF - Chicago, November 2010
RBW - London, November 2010
MiDFur XI - Melbourne, December 2010
FC - California, January 2011
AC - Pittsburgh, June 2011

Please note: =charreed kindly helped me with the shadows and sunlight filter on this, and I used far too many ref pics to list here, but I did want to mention that the garlands the dodos are wearing are made up of flower/plant species native to Mauritius (the Mandrinette hibiscus is extremely rare), and all the trees depicted are as well. The palm trees in particular are based on this one, of which there is only one left in the world. I wonder how many other trees in the world are literally "one-of-a-kind", the very last surviving specimen of their whole species? You hear about critically endangered animals all the time, but not so much about the trees and other plant-life on the very edge of extinction, and they need saving just as much.

(And kudos to anyone who actually read through all of the above info! If you did, then hopefully you've learned something new today.)

Edit: Thank you so very much to =DoomScarf and ^Pixel-Spotlight for the DD!! Also, thanks to everyone else for the comments and favs; I may not have time to comment and thank everyone back individually, but I DO read and deeply appreciate every single one! <3<3<3 *hugs to all*

~SD