David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive Page #3

Our understanding of the mastodon

is a lot more accurate today,

thanks to Professor Owen.

But it was not the only creature

in this museum

to be the victim

of misrepresentation.

This poor old bird is a dodo.

It once lived on the island

of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean

and it's almost certainly

the first animal species

that human beings

actually exterminated

in historic times.

And so now we talk about being

"as dead as a dodo."

But in spite of its fame,

this one is a fake.

Its feathers come from a goose,

its feet were modelled on a turkey

and its beak, I suspect,

is plaster.

The museum can be forgiven

because no skin or feathers

of the dodo survive.

Its image was influenced

by pictures like this one,

painted by a 17th century

Dutch artist, Roelandt Savery,

but he had never seen a living dodo

and based his image

on accounts by seafarers.

I've often wondered whether dodos

actually looked like that,

but unfortunately,

they'd all disappeared

before anyone could get a good look

at them...

...until now.

This funny, dumpy creature

is how the bird is usually

represented these days.

But I've seen quite a lot of

flightless birds over the years

and this one doesn't quite

ring true.

An examination of the way

its thighs join its pelvis

has shown that, in life,

it actually stood much more upright.

We now know that its feathers

were probably a lot fluffier

than in that painting.

We also now know that it

was related to the pigeon

and some experts suggest that

it made a pigeon-like call -

"Doo-doo, doo-doo" -

which gave the bird its name.

The dodo probably fed on fruit -

there's a lot of it on the island.

I'll try him with a bit.

Come on.

What do you make of that?

Ow! That's a very powerful beak.

In fact, it may well

have been adapted

for crushing shells and crustaceans

for the sake of the calcium.

'And there's a female.'

Maybe she is another reason why

they had such large beaks -

to show off with

during courtship.

And here comes a rival male.

He could be another reason

for having a huge beak -

to fight with in disputes

over nest sites.

Until now,

no-one has ever seen a dodo egg,

so no-one knows how big it was.

But after tonight, who knows?

Science has revealed the truth

behind many a myth

and discovered some creatures

that are so odd

as to be scarcely believable.

But there is one story

that is still remarkably persistent.

Back in 1951,

a famous Himalayan explorer

and mountaineer, Eric Shipton,

came across some footprints

across a high snowfield

that looked as if they'd been made

by some kind of giant ape.

Shipton's Sherpa companions had

no doubt about what had made them.

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