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Dodo
Raphus cucullatus
Discover why the dodo disappeared from Mauritius and how surviving remains help scientists test the familiar image of this flightless bird.
- Featured region
- Mauritius
- Time
- Extinct by the late 1600s
- Habitat
- Island forests
- Diet
- Plant foods, including fruit
Questions, adaptations and evidence
Discover why the dodo disappeared from Mauritius and how surviving remains help scientists test the familiar image of this flightless bird.
Start with the questions below, follow the linked evidence, then try the discovery challenge with someone else.
Field observations
- The dodo was endemic to Mauritius: this was its only natural home.
- Despite its unusual appearance, it was a relative of pigeons.
- Some museum skeletons are composites assembled from the bones of several birds.
Map points represent broad historical or habitat regions, not live sightings or exact dig locations.
Questions worth exploring
DodoHistory field notes · Sources checked
Why did the dodo go extinct?
People hunted dodos, changed their habitat and introduced animals that preyed on birds or eggs. These pressures reached a species whose entire natural range was one island. Its disappearance was not evidence that it was poorly adapted to its original home.
Oxford University Museum of Natural History · Dodo evidence ↗Where did dodos live?
Dodos lived on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. They were endemic: their natural home was limited to that island. An island on a map can therefore represent the whole range of a species, rather than one stop within a wider distribution.
Oxford University Museum of Natural History · Dodo evidence ↗When did the dodo go extinct?
It disappeared during the seventeenth century. The Natural History Museum identifies 1662 as the last reliable sighting, while discussing possible later records. A last sighting dates an observation; it does not establish the exact day the final bird died.
Natural History Museum · Dodo facts and extinction ↗Are museum dodos real preserved birds?
A complete mounted dodo is a reconstruction. Oxford preserves rare remains, including material from the head and foot. Distinguish original material from the parts a museum has modelled around it.
Oxford University Museum of Natural History · Dodo evidence ↗Was the dodo related to pigeons?
Yes. Evidence from anatomy and DNA connects dodos with pigeons. Being large and flightless does not erase that evolutionary relationship.
Oxford University Museum of Natural History · Dodo evidence ↗
