Which extinct bird was native to Mauritius and died out in the 17th century? The answer is the dodo.
The dodo was a flightless bird endemic to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. It evolved in an environment with few large terrestrial predators, so it became a ground-dwelling bird with reduced flight ability. Its closest living relatives are generally considered pigeons and doves, despite the dodo’s very different appearance.
Portuguese sailors encountered the bird in the late 16th century, and Dutch settlement of Mauritius brought major pressures. Hunting, habitat disturbance, and introduced animals such as rats, pigs, dogs, and monkeys affected dodos and their nests. The last widely accepted sighting dates to 1662, although the exact extinction date remains uncertain.
The dodo was not a type of moa, great auk, or passenger pigeon. Those were separate extinct birds from different regions and lineages. Its fame grew after extinction, especially through Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which helped make “dodo” a symbol of obsolescence.