Abstract
The extinction of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus L.; Fig. 1) is commonly dated to the last confirmed sighting in 1662, reported by Volkert Evertsz on an islet off Mauritius1,2. By this time, the dodo had become extremely rare — the previous sighting having been 24 years earlier — but the species probably persisted unseen beyond this date. Here we use a statistical method to establish the actual extinction time of the dodo as 1690, almost 30 years after its most recent sighting.
Its last confirmed sighting was in 1662, although an escaped slave claimed to have seen the bird as recently as 1674. In fact, it is estimated by using a Weibull distribution method that the dodo may have persisted until 1690, almost 30 years after its presumed extinction date. Although gone forever, the dodo's lumbering appearance in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has ensured that it will not be forgotten.
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References
Cheke, A. S. in Studies of Mascarene Island Birds (ed. Diamond, A. W.) 5–89 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1987).
Fuller, E. Dodo: A Brief History (Universe Books, New York, 2002).
Cooke, P. Biometrika 67, 257–258 (1980).
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Roberts, D., Solow, A. When did the dodo become extinct?. Nature 426, 245 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/426245a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/426245a
