Which African country is famous as the historic home of the dodo?

Mauritius is the historic home of the dodo.

The dodo was a flightless bird endemic to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. Europeans encountered it after Portuguese sailors reached the island, and Dutch settlement later brought habitat changes, introduced animals, and hunting pressure.

The species disappeared by the late seventeenth century. Its extinction made the dodo one of the best-known examples of human-caused island extinction, although the exact date of the final individual’s death is unknown.

Mauritius is an independent island country, not the same place as Réunion, a nearby French overseas department. The dodo’s scientific name is Raphus cucullatus, and surviving museum material includes bones and a few preserved remains rather than a complete living population.