DodoRaphus cucullatus — habitat, diet and reproduction

Model of a dodo with a round grey-brown body, large hooked bill and yellow legs

Museum reconstruction of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus). · Jebulon / CC0 (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en).

The dodo was a large flightless bird from the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It stood about 70 centimetres tall, had a large hooked bill and was related to pigeons. It vanished less than a century after European sailors reached the island and became the world symbol of species lost because of humans.

Quick facts

Common name	Dodo
Scientific name	Raphus cucullatus
Lifespan	Unknown
Height	About 63–75 cm
Weight	Estimated at about 10–18 kg
Diet	Probably fruit, seeds, nuts and roots
Predators	No predators before humans; then pigs, dogs, rats and monkeys brought by people
Conservation status	Extinct (EX), late seventeenth century
Distribution	Only the island of Mauritius
Habitat	Coastal and inland forests of the island
Family	Columbidae
Flight	Flightless

Primary category:Birds
Explore this animal's categories:
Animals of Africa Birds D Egg-laying animals Extinct animals Feathered animals Flightless birds Herbivores Vertebrates

Interesting facts

The dodo’s closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon.
The last sighting accepted by researchers took place in 1662.
The Oxford museum holds the only dodo head with preserved soft tissue.
The dodo appears as a character in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.

Characteristics

The dodo had a round body, short yellow legs and small wings that could not lift it off the ground. Its plumage was probably grey-brown, with a tuft of pale tail feathers.

The bill was large with a hooked tip, and the face was partly bare. The image of a very fat bird comes from period paintings, sometimes based on overfed captive birds. Bone studies suggest a slimmer, more agile bird.

Behaviour

We know little about its behaviour because sailors’ accounts are short and sometimes contradictory. On an island without predators, dodos were not afraid of people.

Bone research suggests it lived on the ground, could run and used its strong bill for feeding and perhaps defence.

Habitat and distribution

The dodo lived only on Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. The volcanic island had no predatory mammals before people arrived.

It used coastal and inland forests. A close relative, the Rodrigues solitaire, lived on a nearby island and also went extinct.

Diet and feeding

Researchers believe it ate fallen fruit, seeds, nuts, bulbs and roots, and perhaps crabs or snails.

Like other birds, it swallowed grit to grind hard food in its stomach. The exact relationship between the dodo and certain Mauritian trees is still debated.

Reproduction and life cycle

The female is thought to have laid a single large egg in a ground nest. Bone studies show chicks grew quickly and birds moulted after the breeding season.

Ground nests were very vulnerable to pigs, rats and monkeys brought by people, which ate eggs and chicks.

Name and history

The name “dodo” may come from the Dutch “dodoor”, sluggard, or the Portuguese “doudo”, fool. Dutch sailors first described it in 1598.

The English phrase “dead as a dodo” means something gone for good. DNA studies in 2002 confirmed that the dodo was a giant pigeon.

Conservation and threats

The dodo became extinct in the late seventeenth century. The main causes were animals introduced by people, which destroyed nests, forest clearance and, to a lesser extent, hunting.

Its story is used as an example of how vulnerable island species are. Today Mauritius protects other rare species, such as the pink pigeon and Mauritius kestrel, saved at the last moment.