We’re wrapping up our theme week on Stories You Might Have Missed in 2024! Dodo birds were always thought to be plump, slow, and dumb. But in 2024, scientists studied sources dating back more than 400 years and reexamined fossil bone structures to come to the conclusion that we might have been wrong about Dodos all along! It turns out that dodos were actually fast, agile, and physical creatures.
Dutch sailors first encountered Dodos in 1600 on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Just 80 years later, they became extinct. Dodos were completely fearless of humans because they had no significant natural predators. However, human predation wasn’t the main cause of their extinction. The human population on Mauritius was never more than 50 people in the 17th century. But they did introduce other animals, like dogs, cats, pigs, rats, and monkeys to the island, which plundered dodo nests and competed for the limited food resources. The exact date of the dodo’s extinction is unknown, but it’s thought that the last one was seen in July 1681. Learn more about dodos in the audio below!