10 Facts About the Dodo Bird

The dodo bird vanished in such a short time from the surface of Earth 300 years ago that it’s become the most popular bird of extinctions: Perhaps you’ve heard of the phrase “as dead as a dodo.” Explore unknown Facts About the Dodo Bird in the post below!

As quick and shocking as the Dodo’s disappearance was, the tragic bird has essential knowledge in the management of endangered animals that are barely clear of dying today and concerning the vulnerability of islands’ ecosystems due to their native species that have adjusted to their particular surroundings.

Facts About the Dodo Bird

Explore fun facts about the Dodo Bird here and share the post with your kids and friends!

The Dodo Bird was a resident of Mauritius, the Island of Mauritius

In the Pleistocene era the frightened flock of pigeons was spotted at Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island of Mauritius located 700 miles to the east of Madagascar. Pigeons flourished in this new setting changing over thousands of years to become the flightless, 3-foot tall (.9 m) fifty-pound (23 kilograms) dodo, which was most likely the first time humans saw as Dutch settlements arrived in Mauritius during 1598. In less than 65 years the Dodo became gone; the last recorded sighting of this unfortunate bird was in 1662.

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Up to Humans began to evolve, the Dodo Bird had no predators.

In the past the Dodo lived an idyllic life. There weren’t any predatory mammals, reptiles, or even massive insects living on its island habitat, so there was no need for natural defenses. Dodo birds were so trusting they’d actually walk up towards armed Dutch colonists, unaware that these bizarre creatures planned to kill them and eat them. They also made tempting meals for these colonists and their imported dogs, cats and monkeys.

FEATURED VIDEO Zero seconds in one second 0%01,58 Guess the Value of This Dodo Skeleton from the past is worth it?

The Dodo was ‘Secondarily Airless’

It requires a lot of energy to sustain powered flight. That’s why nature favors this type of adaptation only in situations where it is essential. After the dodo bird’s dodo pigeon predecessors arrived at their paradise island, they slowly lost their ability to fly and grew into turkey-sized sizes.

Secondary flightlessness has been a frequent aspect of bird evolution that is evident in ostriches and penguins and chickens, and the predatory birds who preyed on South American mammals only a few million years after dinosaurs became extinct.

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It was said that the Dodo Bird Laid Only One Egg at a time

The process of evolution is conservative An animal can only produce as many children as it is necessary to reproduce the species. Since the dodo bird had zero natural predators, females could enjoy the privilege of laying just one egg at one time. The majority of other birds lay several eggs to increase the chances for hatching at the least one egg, getting away from natural catastrophes or predators or even being able to survive. This one-egg-per-dodo-bird policy had disastrous consequences when the macaques owned by Dutch settlers learned how to raid dodo nests, and the cats, rats, and pigs that invariably got loose from ships went feral and preyed on the chicks.

Dodo Bird Didn’t Taste Like Chicken! Dodo Bird Didn’t ‘Taste Like Chicken’

In contrast, given how frequently they were slain to death by Dutch colonists, dodo birds weren’t the most delicious of birds. The dining options were pretty limited during the 17th century however, the sailors who arrived on Mauritius took advantage of what they could get, and ate as much of the dead donkey carcasses that they were able to and then preserving any leftovers by adding salt.

There’s no reason why the flesh of the Dodo wouldn’t have been a delicacy for humans; after all, the bird relies on delicious fruits, nuts, and roots native to Mauritius and perhaps shellfish.

The closest relative is the Nicobar Pigeon

To illustrate the bizarre nature of this bird of prey, the genetic study of specimens that have been preserved established that its closest living cousin is the Nicobar Pigeon, a smaller bird of flight that flies over the entire southern Pacific. Another cousin, which is now extinct, was Rodrigues solitaire found on the Indian island of Rodrigues and was subject to exactly the same fate, as did its famous cousin. Like the Dodo Rodrigues solitaire only laid one egg at a time and was not prepared for the humans who came to its island in the 17th century.

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The Dodo was once referred to as the “Wallowbird”

It was only a few minutes period in between the “official” name for the bird dodo, and its disappearance. However, misinformation was generated in the 64 years. Soon after the bird was discovered in the early 1900s, an Dutch captain called the dodo “walghvogel” (“swallow bird”), as well as certain Portuguese sailors, refer to it as a penguin (which could be a mangled version of the word pinion which translates to “small wings”). Philologists of the present aren’t certain of the origins from Dodo–likely possibilities include those who use the Dutch dodoor, which is Dutch for dodoor that means “sluggard,” or the Portuguese word doudo that means “crazy.”

There are only a handful of Dodo Particulars

If they weren’t shooting, clubbing and roasting dodos, Dutch and Portuguese colonists of Mauritius were able to transport some live species back to Europe. However, the majority of these dodos did not make it through the lengthy travel. Now the once-popular bird species are only represented by few remains of their former self such as a dried head, one foot at the Oxford Museum of Natural History and fragments of skulls and leg bones in the University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum as well as in the National Museum of Prague.

It is believed that the Dodo Bird Is Mentioned in “Alice’s Adventures of Wonderland”

In addition to the phrase “as death as the dodo” Dodo’s primary contribution to the history of culture is its appearance from the Lewis Carroll novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in which it hosts the “Caucus Race.” It is widely believed that the Dodo was a spoof for Carroll himself, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Consider just the two initial letters in the writer’s last name, and add in the possibility that Carroll had a prominent strutter, and you’ll understand why he was very close with the Dodo that had gone out of fashion.

It’s Possible to revive the Dodo

De-extinction is a science program that could allow us to be able to bring back extinct species back into the wild. It is possible to find (barely) enough remains of the dodo bird preserved from the bird dodo to retrieve some of its soft tissues and, consequently, fragments of DNA from the Dodo. The Dodo shares a significant portion in its DNA with modern-day cousins like the Nicobar pigeon that it makes surrogate parenthood a possibility. Even so the Dodo is not a sure bet to be successful in eradicating its extinction however it is more likely that the woolly mammoth and the gastric-brooding frog (to only mention two) are far more likely potential candidates.