The dodo was a medium-large sized flightless bird that was discovered on the Island of Mauritius in the 1590s and was declared extinct less than a century later, in 1681. Despite the turkey-sized body of the dodo, it is thought to have been most closely related to smaller birds such as doves and pigeons. Find out more!

The dodo is a large sized bird that adapted to a life without large ground-dwelling predators, which led to the dodo to behave quite unusually for a bird. Despite having wings, the dodo was unable to fly as they were quite too small and weak to support the rounded body of the dodo. The dodo was also known to have been fearless of the European invaders which ultimately led to the demise of the species.

The dodo ate ripe fruit that fell to the ground, eating the fruit of the Tambalacoque tree (which is often called the dodo tree). This long-living tree is now in danger of extinction since it depended on the dodo for its own reproduction; its seed can only germinate (sprout) after going through the digestive system of the dodo (the seed has a very thick coating).

Due to a lack of natural predators, the dodo evolved to making it’s nest on the ground where the female dodo would lay a single egg. The incubation period of the dodo egg is estimated to be between 4 and 6 weeks, when the dodo chick would hatch and be reared by it’s mother before becoming independent as it grew older.