| Pezophaps
solitaria |
HOME |
| |
| Kingdom |
Animalia |
Rodrigues
Solitaire by the English zoological artist and
lepidopterist Frederick William Frohawk. This image was published in Lionel
Walter Rothschild's book 'Extinct birds' from 1907. This
image is in the public
domain because its copyright has expired. This
applies to the European Union, Canada, the United States and those
countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.
|
| Phylum |
Chordata |
| Class |
Aves
(birds) |
| Order |
Columbiformes
(pigeons) |
| Family |
Raphidae
(dodos and solitairs) |
| Authority |
(Gmelin,
1789) |
| |
| English
Name |
Rodrigues
Solitaire, Rodriguez Solitaire |
| Dutch
Name |
Rodrigues
Solitaire |
| French
Name |
Dronte
de Rodrigues, Solitaire de Rodrigues |
| German
Name |
Rodrigues-Solitär,
Rodriguez-Einsiedler |
| Spanish Name |
Solitario de Rodrígues |
| Italian
Name |
Dodo
di Rodrigues |
| |
| Synonyms |
Didus
solitarius Gmelin, 1789; Pezophaps solitaria Strickland and
Melville, 1848. |
| |
| Characteristics |
The
Rodrigues Solitaire has a length of about 90 cm (3 feet). The female's
colour was probably pale buff, grey or brown. They had a band of black
velvet-like feathers at the base of their beak. The two breast-shaped
elevations on the lower neck were lighter in colour than the rest of the
underparts. The male was probably grey or brown. It was much larger. Both
sexes had feathers that were probably rather hair-like. Their iris was
most likely black. (Fuller, 2000) |
| |
| Lifestyle |
Most
of our knowledge of its appearance and behaviour is derived from the
account of the French Huguenot François Leguet, who was marooned on the
island between 1691 and 1693.
|
| |
| Range
& Habitat |
 The
Rodrigues solitaire was endemic to the island of Rodrigues. Rodrigues is one of the Mascarene Islands and a dependency of
Mauritius.
Image: map showing the location of
the island of
Mauritius, the former range of the Rodrigues Solitaire. Created by Peter Maas
for The Extinction Website. This
image has been released under
the Creative
Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence.
This applies worldwide.
|
| |
| Reproduction |
The
Rodrigues solitaire is a single egg ground-nester. Amongst
other peculiarities, Leguat described the birds' odd nesting behaviour.
For example, a pair would not allow any other Rodrigues Solitaire near the
nest. If intruders did appear, males would drive off rival males, while
females dealt with females. Whenever a male was confronted with a female
intruder it called its partner to chase the stranger off. Such observations
of the solitaire indicate that breeding pairs were highly territorial,
presumably they settled disputes by striking each other with the wings. As
the Huguenots caught the young in the summer we may assume that they
hatched in the summer. |
| |
| History
& Population |
Leguat's
account was written around 1690. From an anonymous author we know the
Rodrigues Solitaire was still quite common in 1730. The birds were heavily
hunted by humans and predated by introduced cats. The Rodrigues Solitaire
was very rare by 1755, when Cossigny tried to obtain one without success,
but was told that the species did still survive. When a French research
vessel visited the island in 1961, it also did not find any Rodrigues
Solitaires, even though inhabitants claimed that some were still here. If
the species still survived in 1761, it probably became extinct shortly
after.
|
| |
| Extinction
Causes |
Disappeared
after introduction of cats, rats and pigs; also hunted for food. The
Huguenots praised the birds for their flavour. The young, who were caught
in the summer, were considered a particular delicacy. They were easy to
catch, due to their inability to fly. |
| |
| Museum
Specimens |
The Rodrigues Solitaire is known from a large number of bones found on
the island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean. No mounted specimens of the
Rodrigues Solitaire exist.
Solitaires are distinguished by an unusual large, gnarled knob of bone at
the base of the thumb. In life, this knob would have been covered by a
thick layer of skin and used as a weapon (a similar, smaller thumb knob is
seen in Canada geese). |
| |
| Relatives |
Two
(also extinct) nearest relatives of the Rodrigues solitaire which lived
also on the Mascarenes, were the Réunion
Solitaire
(Raphus solitarius) which lived on the island Réunion and the
famous dodo
(Raphus
cucullatus) which
lived on the island Mauritius.
 Researchers at the University of Oxford, UK, have taken samples from a
preserved specimen in an attempt to uncover the extinct bird's family tree
in 2002. The Oxford team worked with the Natural History Museum to collect
and analyse genetic material from a Rodrigues solitaire, the dodo, and from another 35 kinds of living pigeon and
dove. Their analysis
confirmed that the Rodrigues Solitaire and the dodo were, as expected, each others closest relative.
What is less expected is that these two extinct flightless giants are
nested deep inside the pigeon family tree. In other words, dodos are
more closely related to some flying pigeons than those flying pigeons
are to other flying pigeon. Among living pigeons, the dodos are most
close to the Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenus nicobarica), a beautiful
pigeon from South East Asia.
Almost as closely related are the crowned pigeons of New Guinea.
Photo:
Nicobar Pigeon at Bristol Zoo, Bristol, England. Photographed by Adrian
Pingstone in August 2003 and placed in the public domain
by the copyright holder.
|
| |
| Links |
The
Mauritius Encyclopedia - Rebuilding the Dodo from it's DNA.
The
Mauritius Encyclopedia - The Dodo Family Secrets - DNA yields dodo family
secrets.
The
Mauritius Encyclopedia - Dodo was really a pigeon.
300
Pearls – Museum highlights of natural diversity.
300pearls
- Naturalis - The Rodrigues Solitaire.
ENCYCLOPÆDIA
Mauritiana - Rodrigues Solitaire - Pezophaps solitaria.
BBC
News | SCI/TECH | DNA yields dodo family secrets.
|
| |
| Reference |
Fuller, E.
2000. Extinct birds. Oxford University Press, Oxford. |
|
Last
updated: 25th December 2008.
This
page is a part of The
Extinction Website.
© 2000-2009. |