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How Did The Dodo Become The Face Of Animal Extinction?
How a remote flightless bird gained global recognition
No other animal in the world is as synonymous with extinction as the Dodo. The dodo was a large flightless bird native to the islands of Mauritius that disappeared hundreds of years ago. But the dodo is just one of thousands of species that have gone extinct over the course of history. In fact, it is theorized that over 99% of all species that ever lived have gone extinct. The dodo bird is not even the most recent animal to go extinct. There have been numerous examples of animals that have gone extinct in the past few generations. So, how did the dodo become the face of animal extinction?
We must go back to the Golden Age of Sail to answer that question. The dodo took a long and strenuous journey from obscure species to extinction and, finally, a global mascot.
A Brief History Of The Dodo
The first mention of the dodo bird in Western sources comes from Portuguese sailors in 1507 who spotted the birds while sailing through the Indian Ocean. Native peoples had been living alongside the dodo for centuries…
