Careful re-evaluation of the Dodo by several contemporary researchers has found that many of the widely accepted conclusions about it are wrong. It was not a fat, slow, inferior, defenseless bird, but a swift and fierce fighter if it perceived that it was threatened. The common conclusion that it was defenseless is partly due to the fact that it did not have a natural fear of humans or many animals. Often given as the prime example of how evolution prunes out the weak, it was concluded that its extinction was not because of inferiority, but due to the wanton disregard of life by humans. Often regarded by contemporaries as a wonderful, magnificent creature, its loss proves not the efficacy of natural selection, but the depravity of its caretaker. In contrast the Passenger Pigeon was widely regarded as one of the most fit and evolutionarily successful birds; yet it became extinct. This case also eloquently illustrates the depravity of the Passenger Pigeon's caretaker.