In Britain firstly in the century the skeleton of an extinct bird dodo will be sold

As it is stated in the announcement of auction house Summers Place Auctions, the owner of skeleton has gathered it bone after bone since 1970s. The collector purchased rare bones of the bird from other owners and at the auctions. As the result, he could gather nearly 95% of skeleton.

Now the export of dodo’s bones from the motherland of the bird, the island of Saint Mauritius, is forbidden by the local authorities.

Europeans first saw the bird dodo, or Mauritius solitaire, in 1958, and in general, in seventy years this kind disappeared from the surface of ground being annihilated by the colonists from the West and pigs moved by them. Portuguese and Holland colonists mocked dodo for its size and lack of fear in front of human. This bird that was not able to fly reached one meter in crest, and colonists often hunted on it. However, more significant impact on the population dodo was caused by naturalized animals, especially pigs and macaques which ate planting and took birds’ nests.

The first full-fledged reserved skeleton of dodo was found by the scientists in 2005. The last skeleton of dodo was put at the auction in 1914.

For a long time many naturalists had been considering dodo as the mythical creature until in 1840s the investigation of the reserved remained of the species moved to Europe at the beginning of XVII century was found.

British writer Lewis Carroll made this bird famous giving to it an opportunity to become one of the characters of a fairy-tale for children ‘Alice in the Wonderland’.