The surprising science of dodos: Everything you need to know, from extinction cause to its ‘repulsive’ taste

Learn what wiped out the dodo – and how scientists plan to resurrect the bird.

By Helen Pilcher

Published: Friday, 03 February 2023 at 12:00 am

The dodo was a large, flightless pigeon, endemic to the island of Mauritius, just over 1,130 kilometres east of Madagascar, off the south-eastern coast of Africa.

Much maligned and misunderstood, in popular culture it somehow morphed into a comical caricature that was destined to die out because it was too stupid to survive.

This is not a fair or accurate view. The dodo was exquisitely adapted to its island habitat, and could still be alive now, were it not for the actions of our own species, which drove it to extinction.

However, it could soon be resurrected. Hot on the heels of efforts to resurrect both the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, American biotech company, Colossal Biosciences, has announced plans to de-extinct the dodo.

But why exactly did they go extinct in the first place? What did dodos eat? And, dare we ask, what did they taste like? You can find all answers below.

Why did the dodo go extinct?

Curiosity. Naivety… When the first seafarers set foot on the island, they were exhausted and hungry. The dodo had evolved in an environment bereft of natural predators, so it had no fear of the newcomers.

Spotting a potential meal, the sailors found they could walk right up to the dodos on the beach, and then club them to death. The cries of one captive dodo, would attract more, which came running from the forest, and so it went on.

Perfectly placed as a stopover for their fleets as they criss-crossed the Indian Ocean, the Dutch visited Mauritius many times before setting up a permanent base there in the 1630s.

Along the way, they trashed the dodo’s natural habitat by felling forests to make way for sugar plantations, and flooded the island with non-native species. Rats, goats, pigs, deer and macaques competed with the dodos for resources. They destroyed the dodos’ nests and predated their eggs and chicks.

The dodo became extinct around 1693, less than 100 years after it was discovered.

What did the dodo eat?

No one knows for sure, but the dodo probably dined on the fruits, nuts and seeds that it pilfered from the forest floor. It may also have eaten seafood items, such as shellfish and crabs, that it found on the shoreline.

Like many of today’s birds, dodos also swallowed stones, to help with digestion. These ‘gastroliths’ were retained in the bird’s muscular gizzard, where they helped to grind up fibrous material.

Read more:

Why couldn’t the dodo fly?

The dodo is descended from a much smaller, airborne pigeon which landed in Mauritius sometime in the last 7 million years.

At the time, there were no terrestrial mammals around to eat it, and so gradually, the bird began to fly less and walk more. In this resource-rich environment, it also evolved to become bigger, until there came a point where it could no longer leave the ground. The dodo evolved.

Is it wrong to ask if dodos tasted of chicken?

Yes it is, but no, it didn’t. Dutch sailors carried the dead birds back to their ships, where they chopped them up and turned them into stews. The meat was described as ‘offensive and of no nourishment.’

Five names the dodo didn’t deserve

The Dutch sailors of the day dubbed dodos as ‘dodaersen’ or ‘fat-arses,’ because of the birds’ generously-proportioned backsides.
Seafarers who ate dodo meat, described it as tough and unpleasant. They called the dodo ‘walchvögel’ or ‘repulsive bird.’
The day after they weighed anchor in Mauritius, the Dutch crew of the Gelderland observed the festival of Kermesse, which involved eating fattened fowl. In reference to this, and the dodo’s portly frame, they called the dodos ‘kermisgans.’
Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus, who devised the modern system of naming organisms, bought into the misconception that dodos were clumsy and stupid. He labelled them Didus ineptus.
The word ‘dodo’ isn’t exactly kind either. Some sources claim that the name came from 16th century Portuguese sailors who called them ‘doudo’, meaning ‘fool’ or ‘crazy.’

When did the dodo evolve?

No one knows for sure. We know that it was well established when Dutch sailors became the first human visitors to Mauritius in 1598, but there’s still so much more about the dodo that we don’t understand.

The knowledge we do have comes from analyses of its disarticulated remains, and the reports of those who encountered or heard about it.

It makes for a confusing picture. According to these descriptions, the dodo was fast, slow, fat, thin, stooped, straight, pigeon-toed, web-footed, easy to catch, hard to catch, grey, black and blue.

What did it really look like?

Live specimens were shipped to Europe in the 16th century, where they were put on display, and then sometimes stuffed. From these, we know that the dodo had a greyish-brown plumage, with tufty, white tail feathers.