When Did The Dodo Bird Go Extinct? (Everything Explained)

“As dead as a dodo” is a familiar proverb used to indicate that there is no hope of recovery for a person or situation. Since there are no living records of the dodo after the end of the 17th century, they are one of the most famous extinct species in the world. But how much do we know about when they went extinct, and is it even possible to tell exactly when the last dodo on Earth died? Read on to find out what our research on these questions has uncovered.

The last record of the dodo was wrecked in 1662 on Amber Island off the coast of Mauritius by Dutch sailor Volkert Evertsz. Tell when the dodo went extinct.

In 1598, Dutch sailors were the first to spot “a large number of birds the size of swans,” and later observations revealed that these birds displayed a trusting and calm nature when approached and captured.

Less than 100 years after these first appeared, what caused these hook-billed flightless giants to disappear forever? Read on as we try to piece together the causes of one of the most famous examples of species decline ever recorded.

Close-up of dodo bird

Why did the dodo go extinct?

Dutch sailors first spotted the dodo in the late 1500s, and the first recorded observation was made in 1598. Unexplored until this time, the islands were used as a stopover for spice traders on their way across the Indian Ocean, and later as a Dutch penal colony.

Sailors docked on the island would hunt the dodo for food. However, it is widely believed that while humans did kill off large dodo populations, mammals introduced to Mauritius by human settlers were ultimately responsible for the birds’ decline and eventual extinction.

After millions of years of isolation in Mauritius, the dodo’s safe habitat was destroyed by dogs, pigs, deer, rats and monkeys who arrived along with human tourists and settlers. That sealed the fate of the dodo, a giant flightless bird that became extinct less than 100 years after humans first set foot on its once safe Indian Ocean haven.

What are the dodo’s natural enemies?

The dodo originally had no natural enemies. They are able to thrive in isolation in Mauritius and live without any threat to their nest, chicks or their own lives. The only other mammals native to Mauritius at the time were fruit bats.

The dodo is very unaccustomed to encountering any danger or threat when humans come around, and is fearless around humans. Even when they were captured by hunters, they were reported to be calm rather than agitated or trying to escape.

Sailors arriving on the island hunted the dodo, the bird’s first predator. Non-native animal species introduced to Mauritius by human arrivals include dogs, pigs, deer, cats, mice and cynomolgus monkeys, not only to the adult birds but also to their nesting sites, their eggs and their young.

The dodo bird lives on the island of Mauritius

How long does the dodo live?

The only firsthand information we have about the dodo comes from a very limited number of surviving records from the late 1500s to the 1600s. The first written record to mention a bird fitting the description of the dodo was made by Dutch sailors in 1598.

With only cursory observations, we know nothing about the natural lifespan of these birds, beyond the rough estimate of 10 to 20 years for similar species.

What does the dodo eat?

We don’t have any specific evidence of the dodo’s eating habits and food preferences, but the researchers believe that fruits, seeds, roots and berries made up the bulk of the dodo’s diet. They have also been observed eating small stones to aid in digestion. The fruit of the tambalacoque tree, native to Mauritius, is considered a key element of the dodo’s diet.

Scientists have studied the dodo’s DNA and determined that their ancestors included crested pigeons from New Guinea. On this basis, it can be assumed that the dodo had a similar diet, eating mainly fruit, seeds and bulbs, but also crab and shellfish.

Recreating the Dodo in its natural habitat

Where does the dodo live?

The dodo is native to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. By 1640, the dodo had become very rare on the main island of Mauritius, but individual dodos could still be observed on small offshore islands until the early 1660s.

Is the dodo stupid?

Perhaps unfairly, the dodo has become synonymous with stupidity. However, modern thought has challenged this view, proposing a counter theory – that the dodo is actually a success story of evolution, and that over millions of years the dodo has developed specific adaptations, Worked flawlessly with the environment around the island until the arrival of humans and humans – the introduction of predators.

The dodo got its name from being classified as easy prey by sailors who landed in Mauritius. These birds, having never encountered humans before, are very trusting and friendly, making them easy prey as they initially show no resistance to being captured.

David Quammen argues that, in his study of island extinctions, The Song of the Dodo, this should be called “ecologically naive” and inexperienced, not stupid.

Old illustration of dodo bird

What do dodo eggs look like?

There is only one record describing the appearance of dodo eggs, by the French explorer François Cauche, who took notes on what is generally believed to be the dodo’s breeding and nesting habits.

Cauche described eggs as “…white, the size of a halfpenny roll.” He later used the same metaphor to describe white pelican eggs (pelican), so we can infer that the eggs of the dodo are roughly the same size as those of the pelican.

Females lay only one egg, which is believed to be an evolutionary adaptation to their safe isolation on the island and poses no immediate threat to the species’ survival. The dens are shallow shallows in the open ground, surrounded by grass, so that newly introduced predatory mammals can be seen and easily approached.

What does the dodo look like?

The dodo is a tall, stocky bird with a hooked beak about 23 centimeters (9 inches) long, gray in color and without feathers. Their rudimentary wings support the observation that they are flightless. Dodos have thick, scaly yellow legs and three-toed feet with sharp claws.

The dodo’s plumage has been described as any color from black to off-white. This difference in plumage may be explained by annual molt patterns.

The dodo went extinct hundreds of years before photography, so again, we have no solid evidence for what the dodo looked like. We can draw conclusions from the surviving skeletons of the dodo, as well as from several exaggerated cartoon-style sketches or paintings popular in the 1600s. However, these drawings were mainly created by artists who had never seen a dodo in real life.

Judging from modern analyzes of fossilized bones, the dodo may have been slimmer and more streamlined than the overweight, comical birds we’re used to seeing in picture books and cartoons.

A modern model of the dodo

How big is the dodo bird?

So far, only two relatively complete dodo skeletons have been found, along with surviving soft tissue fragments of the heads and feet of individual birds. From this and contemporary accounts, we can estimate that the dodo was about 1 meter (3 feet 3 inches) tall, weighed up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds), and had a wingspan of 50 centimeters (20 inches).

dodo skeleton

When was the last dodo alive?

According to written records, the last credible sighting of a live dodo was in 1662. Conceivably, the bird was still alive for several years after the last observation. Unconfirmed sightings until 1688 (but shortly thereafter) would support the accepted theory that the last remaining dodo must have died before the turn of the 17th century.