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| Sunday, 30 October 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Different Outlook -
Elephant Bird: No myth by Arefa Tehsin
We would be struck silly if someone told us that the fabled elephant eating colossal bird Roc which Sinbad the Sailor fought was indeed real. Yes...Elephant Bird certainly existed. However, it was not elephant eating but a shy and peaceful herbivorous bird, the biggest bird that ever walked on our planet! Imagine yourself walking in the woods when suddenly a looming mammoth bird with long sturdy neck, huge legs with claws, heavy spear like head comes strolling your way... Inhabiting the island of Madagascar, this living myth needed no exaggeration. The famous Venetian merchant Marco Polo had written some strange accounts of a giant bird in his memoirs in the year 1298. Though the ancient mariners also brought back home stories of unearthly creatures and giants, it was not until the 16th century when the mariners returned home with not just the lore but relics. The massive egg, the largest known single cell of the animal kingdom, as much as 3 ft in circumference with a fluid capacity of over 9 litres of liquid astounded the Western world. The eggs were 3 times larger than the eggs of the largest dinosaurs! This flightless bird with hair like feathers was around 10 ft tall and weighed over 500 kg. It was a ratite - a bird that could not fly as its breastbone had no keel. These herbivorous giants might have dominated the primordial land of that isolated island for 60 million years and had no predators to fear until, as David Day pointed, "the advanced hominid called man entered their world". He further said, "these giant birds had through their history adapted to changes and could be numbered amongst one of the most successful bird species." There are supposed to be 3-7 species of prehistoric forms of Elephant birds most of which had perished before the homo sapiens had even evolved. However, along with the Elephant Bird (Aepyornis maximus), another ratite also survived historic times. This was a smaller ratite called Mullerornis. The first human habitation on that island is said to date back to the time of Christ. Arab traders frequented the island over several centuries. In the year 1500 the first European coastal settlements took place but they failed to have a foothold there due to the fierce opposition of the natives towards colonisation. It took them around one and a half century after that to even start tightening their grips and start infiltrating the interior of the island. Influences of slave-traders, merchants and pirates were on a continual basis on Madagascar. Since the time of human habitation on the island, these birds might have been hunted. Collecting its eggs and using it for various purposes including ornamentals hit the population of Elephant Birds or Vouron Patra badly. Not many records were available of what happened before the European settlements. In the year 1658 the population of this bird had dwindled to a great extent and the few remaining had retreated to the innermost parts of the 1000 mile long island. In that year the French Governor Sieur Etienne de Flacourt described the Elephant Bird mentioning how these birds had retreated to the loneliest places on the island. Trade and battles over the years might have brought in steel weapons and muskets, all of which paved the way to eradicate this bird more effectively. In spite of all this, the biggest cause of its disappearance was the destruction of its habitat. With more and more settlements on the island more and more forests were ruined. How long could this giant yet gentle bird, without retaliating, stand against guns and burning of its ancient home? By the year 1700 it was unquestionably extinct. Not much is known when, where and how the last of these birds breathed its final breath and bade farewell to a world no more its own. |
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The worlds of wonder and fantasy that we once inhabited as children,
would flabbergast us now if we were to know there was some truth in it. 
