Captive birds on Dutch Mauritius: bad-tempered parrots, warty pigeons and notes on other native animals

Abstract

During the occupation of Mauritius by the Dutch in the seventeenth century, live dodos and other animals were transported to the east and west as curiosities and gifts by the Dutch East India Company. How these animals managed to survive these journeys, when human casualties on-board ship were so high, has remained a mystery. Here, we present for the first time a translation of the recently discovered report of Johannes Pretorius, who stayed on Mauritius from 1666 to 1669. Pretorius kept a number of now extinct birds in captivity, which was probably an experiment to ascertain their captive requirements prior to transportation. He also provides the first ecological details of some of the now-extinct birds and Mauritian giant tortoises, the impact of introduced animals, and highlights how little of the interior of Mauritius had actually been explored during this time.

Keywords::

• Raven Parrot Lophopsittacus mauritianus
• Mauritius Red Rail Aphanapteryx bonasia
• Mauritius Blue Pigeon Alectroenas nitidissima
• Mauritius Sheldgoose Alopochen mauritiana
• Dodo
• Dutch East India Company (VOC)

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Robert Prŷs-Jones, Perry Moree and Jolyon Parish, whose comments improved the manuscript. We thank James C. Armstrong for bringing the Mauritius journals kept in the National Archives in The Hague to our attention, Karel Schoeman for additional information about Johannes Pretorius, and Gijs Boink, archivaris, for all his help and comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.