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The dodo is an extinct species of bird that once lived on Mauritius, an island off the coast of Madagascar. Dodos, distant relatives of pigeons and other doves, are often referenced as an example of human-caused extinction. Flightless, slow to reproduce and confined to a single island, dodos were vulnerable to the arrival of humans and rats, as well as the introduction of domesticated animals in the late 1500s. About a century later, all that remained of the dodo were a few paintings and written descriptions, along with a small collection of bones.

Dodos were driven to extinction long before photography could capture their likeness, and no taxidermied specimens of the birds survive. For evidence of what dodos actually looked like, modern researchers must turn to historical paintings and other artworks, as well as descriptions from early Arab and European visitors to Mauritius, and such records were not always accurate.  One European artist in particular, 17th-century Flemish painter Roelant Savery, is largely responsible for the rotund image of the dodo that proliferated in other artwork and cartoons. Savery's roly-poly dodo led many to perceive the birds as slow, stupid and clumsy, but evidence from dodo bones suggests that the birds were nimble animals that could outpace humans over rocky terrain. According to the Natural History Museum, the dodo had a large brain and well-developed olfactory glands, indicating that contrary to its popular reputation, it was relatively intelligent and likely had a keen sense of smell.

The dodo went extinct through a fatal combination of slow evolution and fast environmental changes, according to National Geographic. Highly specialized to its environment, the flightless and slow-to-reproduce species was vulnerable to the sudden introduction of predators in its once-safe island home.

For millions of years before human explorers set foot on Mauritius, the island had no large, land-based predators. Wildlife on Mauritius evolved to fill various ecological niches, but these isolated species were slow to respond to newly arrived threats from across the ocean. For example, dodos were said to have no fear of humans who landed on their island beaches, so the birds were easily caught and killed by hungry Dutch sailors. And it wasn't just humans who consumed the dodos. Rather, a host of introduced species — including rats, pigs, goats and monkeys — likely caught and ate dodos and their eggs, Tragically for the dodos, each devoured egg represented a female dodo's only chance for reproduction that year. But for the new arrivals on the island, those nutritious, easy meals were conveniently located within easy reach on the forest floor. Today, the dodo is officially listed as extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.