The Sad Fate Of Dodo Birds: How Humanity Forced Them To Extinction Thrice

On the shores of Mauritius lived a plump, flightless bird that became food for the Dutch sailors arriving on the shores. The Dodo was hunted so often for its tasty meat. As a result, the Dodo became extinct within a century, or so we thought.

BBC reported that the story of how the Dodo came into extinction is largely incorrect. Apparently, waste pits from early Mauritian settlements were excavated in 2013, and although there are a lot of animal bones presumably from their dinner tables, none of them are from Dodo birds.

In fact, many of the presumptions about the dodos have been incorrect. They were not plump but rather lean. They were unlikely hunted into extinction because they lived in deep, impenetrable rainforests beyond the reach of committed hunters.

The problem likely came from ship rats and other animals that the settlers brought with them, which spread across the island and started eating the dodos, even competing with them for food. It was in the 1660s when the last sighting of the bird was reported, and the Dodo was forever lost.

Icons of human-induced extinction, a series of tragedies had lost the dodo at least twice more after that by the way they were treated after they were gone. Specimen of the bird were sent to Europe for scientific study, but despite being distributed to several museums and collections, few of their skeletons and taxidermied species survived, and preserved species dwindled to a mere handful.

At the dawn of the 20th century, amateur naturalist Louis Etienne Thirioux devoted most of his time reading natural sciences and looking for biological treasures -- and among his most valuable finds are a number of Dodo bones that he offered to sell. Offer was low, however, and he eventually decided to hold on to the skeletons until his death. Today, these skeletons can be seen at the Natural History Museum in Port Louis, Mauritius, and a second in the Durban Natural Science Museum in South Africa.

Unfortunately, the studies regarding Dodos can only be limited to the skeletons, which is to say that they aren't a lot. The land where Thirioux found the skeletons have also been filled in and can't be found, which is why, for the third time, humanity has failed the Dodo birds.