Could the Malagasy domesticate the Dodo bird?

Question

In an alternate universe where other groups explored the world before Europeans, what new animals could have been domesticated? In my alternate history world, the Malagasy that came to Madagascar not only land there but also landed in the Mascarene Islands.

There are many roles a domesticated animal can be used for. The major ones are farm labor, dairy production, meat production, clothing production, transportation, pets, pest control, egg production, and hunting/guarding. Other animal roles include things like experimentation and sending messages and a few other things I have missed.

An animal needs 3 main qualities in order to be domesticated. Firstly, it must be able to be controlled by humans. It cannot be too large and dangerous. It also cannot easily disrupt human efforts to control it. Secondly, it must make a lot of babies in a short amount of time. That way, selective breeding and culling of the unwanted offspring can happen. Finally, feeding this animal must be easy. Ideally, the animal eats things humans don't eat like grass but any animal that overall eats less than a human can work.

So given these qualities, could the Dodo bird have been domesticated by the Malagasy? They had appropriate technology and could have used a flightless bird for chicken and egg production (like a chicken substitute). The issue is that Mauritius has limited space and invasive species could wreck havoc on the habitat.

Answer 1

Yes they can domesticate dodo as long as they can feed them and don't kill them all first.

Imported rodents did a lot more damage to dodos than humans did, eating their eggs because they did not have protective instincts that could deal with rodents. so humans will have to defend nests for them. likewise they were easy to hunt since they poor large predator avoidance instincts so breeding them on the mainland will be harder.

The dodo grow rapidly, accounts say they reached breeding age within a year, even if they only breed once a year, so turning them into a faster breeding species should be fairly easy.

They are quite a bit larger than chickens of the time and accounts say they tasted excellent so there is plenty of reason to breed them.

Diet is your biggest hurdle, dodo ate seeds and fruit, things humans could presumably eat as well, so you need a food source. One way is to have a grain crop to feed them, they need excess low desirable crop like a grain, this is what we feed animals today corn, millet, barley, ect. Since they eat a lot of palm nuts perhaps feeding them leftovers after palm oil extraction might work as well. On the upside dodo are described as having high appetites willing to eat spoiled fruit and half spoiled grain so it might be possible to feed them mostly on humans garbage like pigs.

Answer 2

I feel like the question you're really asking is 'why would the Malagasy domesticate the Dodo?' It seems evident that they could, given enough time and a good reason.

Here's my pitch, and maybe its a bit bonkers - They use the Dodo as a weapon of war.

You mention that Dodos are invasive, and the Malagasy are a naval power that travels between islands. What if they noticed that a Dodo, left unchecked, can disrupt the delicate balance of a new island they have been brought to, and they decided 'hey let's train these things and release them on enemy land.' They teach their dodos to run rampant on an area, have lots of babies, and then return when summoned. The 'wild' dodos start to become a problem in one area, while the trained ones are shuttled around to various vulnerable areas across the island, kept safe from hunters. The enemy island becomes distracted, stretched thin trying to handle this pest problem, and then the Malagasy navy shows up in force at the worst possible time and takes over.

When they encounter agricultural societies, this strategy adapts to become even more effective. They start training their Dodos to use their beaks and claws to kill livestock and guard dogs. Rather than just letting the Dodos run rampant, teams of warriors bring the Dodos along in raiding parties, attacking farms and fields. Instead of burning the crops and houses, they kill and drive off everyone, let their trained dodos lay waste to the feilds, and then leave a community of dodos behind, tearing up the ground and scaring off people who try to come back to resettle.

Obviously this doesn't work forever, and the trained battle dodo eventually settles back into a more domestic role. These are more aggressive than wild dodos ever were, but not towards humans. For some, they are a convenient combination of a guard dog and an egg chicken - for others, they are big, dumb, feathered cats, argumentative and taking up space but ultimately friendly(ish) companions.