2: 4. The Dodo: Icon of Extinction and Conservation Inspiration AUTHOR: Stephen Moss BOOK TITLE: 10 Birds That Changed the World This section focuses on the Dodo, which became the icon of extinction. It went extinct on Mauritius within about 80 years after E
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
4. The Dodo: Icon of Extinction and Conservation Inspiration
BOOK TITLE: 10 Birds That Changed the World
This section focuses on the Dodo, which became the icon of extinction. It went extinct on Mauritius within about 80 years after European sailors arrived (c. 1597), introducing ground predators (dogs, rats, cats, monkeys) that ate the flightless bird's eggs and chicks. Since the idea of extinction was incomprehensible to 17th-century society, few specimens were preserved. The dodo's fate has since inspired conservation successes, such as Carl Jones saving the Mauritius Kestreland Pink Pigeon using methods like double clutching.
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| 0:26.4 | Ten birds have changed the world. |
| 0:27.9 | Stephen Moss's new book. |
| 0:29.8 | He's also a producer, |
| 0:33.3 | but the author of a book that reveals to me again and again, |
| 0:35.4 | language is important. |
| 0:40.6 | And the word extinction is frightening. How many extinctions have been since the creation of the earth in the bombardment of three and a half to four billion years ago but this one |
| 0:45.7 | the dodo bird turns out to be the author of the word extinction that enters into the vocabulary of the century since he was first discovered. |
| 0:57.0 | I believe it was the 16th century when a ship called there. |
| 1:01.0 | And the dodo no longer exists, but the word extinction is now important |
| 1:06.0 | for those who move to save or protect or in some way |
| 1:10.9 | worry about the habitats and the destruction of our birds. |
| 1:16.4 | The humble dodo, I learned from you that when the Dutch first found him, |
| 1:21.6 | they call him the wallow birds, and they regarded him as loathsome. |
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