(Frederick William Frohawk/Wikimedia Commons)
This friendly and chubby bird disappeared in the 17th century with the arrival of settlers to its habitat, the island of Mauritius, 1,900 kilometers off the African coast, in the Indian Ocean. Barely larger than a turkey and weighing around 50 pounds, the dodo was a giant pigeon in the family Raphidae. As it had short and fragile wings, it could not fly. Didn’t even need to. “The bird was very tame and harmless, because the island had no predatory mammals”, says biologist Manuel Martins, from the Federal University of São Carlos (Ufscar).
The animal’s good life lasted only until the Europeans landed in Mauritius. First there were the Portuguese, in 1507. But the most cruel action was that of the Dutch, who colonized the place from 1598. With little food on the ships, the sailors disembarked hungry and soon chose the docile – and tasty – dodo as their favorite. favorite dish. “Birds were killed by the thousands, even with clubs”, says Manuel.
To make matters worse, animals such as dogs, cats and rats brought by the caravels attacked the eggs in the nests, hidden in the corners of the place. With all the killing, the species gradually disappeared. In 1681, less than 100 years after the Dutch arrived on the island, the dodo was declared officially extinct. Today, all that remains of the animal are skeletons in museums in Europe, the United States and also Mauritius.