In the year 1507 AD, Portuguese sailors landing on the shores of the island of Mauritius discovered a strange looking bird. It was large and stubby, and could not fly. It had a hooked black beak, short yellow legs, grey-blue plumage, and tuft of pale coloured feathers for its tail. Since this bird had never seen humans before, it was very friendly and trusting. In fact, the sailors mistook its gentle nature for stupidity, and called it ‘dodo’, which meant simpleton in Portuguese.The dodo was an easy source of fresh meat for the Portuguese – and later, the Dutch who came to the island in 1598- because it could be easily captured due to its friendliness. Dodos were killed in large numbers by the new inhabitants of the island. Those that survived Man had to face new enemies like dogs and pigs that were introduced by these inhabitants. The dodo had no natural enemies on the island, but these new animals, together with Man, hastened its extinction. By the year 1681, the last dodo had died, and today, the term ‘as dead as a dodo’, means something that has disappeared entirely from the face of the Earth.
Dodo Tree
The extinction of the dodo almost led to the extinction of yet another species, a certain type of tree in Mauritius, which was known as the dodo tree. The seeds of this tree could only germinate after passing through the digestive tract of the dodo. When the dodo became extinct, no new trees grew on the island. However, the tree was saved from extinction when botanists fed its seeds to turkeys. The seeds passed through the turkey’s digestive system, and were propagated in the same way as when dodos were alive.