Dodo family: a symbol for conservationists, from the lovely tropical island of Mauritius.

The 17th century Europeans destroyed the poor Dodo before the rest of the world really knew they existed. Dutch sailors making landfall on Mauritius hunted them for food and fun, and later settlers destroyed their forest habitat. The settlers introduced pigs, dogs, cats and rats which soon eliminated the ground-nesting, defenceless Dodos. My family and I would often holiday in Mauritius, and sympathy for this doomed bird and its sad message prompted me to sculpt a Dodo family as my personal monument to wildlife conservation. So these delightful creatures, even though extinct, live again in silver as a tribute to the efforts of concerned humans all over the world.