Tenbirds have changed the world.

Stephen Moss's new book.

He is also a producer but the author of a book that reveals to me again and again, language is important and the word

extinction is frightening. How many extinctions has there been since the creation of the

earth in the bombardment of three and a half to four billion years ago.

But this one, 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. I believe it was the 16th century when a ship called air and the dododo no longer exists but the word extinction is now important for

those who move to save or protect or in some way worry about the habitats and the destruction of our birds.

The humble dodo, I learned from you that when the Dutch first found him, they call him the

wallow birds, and they regarded him as

lozome. What happened to him? Why did what did they go away in the Mauritius

Island suddenly, Stephen? Well what I hadn't realized about the Dodo was that unlike other oceanic islands that were colonized

by humans during the sort of age of empire if you like in the 16th, 17th, 18th centuries,

Mauritius was not inhabited by people.

So unlike America, unlike New Zealand, unlike Australia, where humans were there already.

Maricious was a place where the Dodo lived and it had

evolved not to have to fly because why would it have to fly if there's no

enemies and there were also no predators no ground predators no mammals

no mammals and unfortunately the Dutch sailors who arrived

I think in 1597 or 98 brought in dogs and cats and rats

and actually macaque monkeys which they kept as pets and those birds both

ate the eggs and the chicks of the dodo in the nest but also of course could

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