Extinct Mauritius The Dodo Bird Crown Coin Display Set

The cause of the Dodo's extinction is not certain, but recent evidence suggests that it was nearly wiped out by some natural disaster before humans even arrived on the island, its population reduced so severely that it fell below sustainable levels.

As with many animals evolving in isolation from significant predators, the Dodo was entirely fearless of people, and this, in combination with its flightlessness, made it easy prey (the island was first visited by the Portuguese in 1507, but the Dutch were the first permanent settlers on the island). However, when humans first arrived on Mauritius, they also brought with them other animals that had not existed on the island before, including sheep, dogs, pigs, rats and monkeys which plundered the Dodo nests, while humans destroyed the forests where they made their homes.

There is some controversy surrounding the extinction date of the Dodo. David Roberts states that "the extinction of the Dodo is commonly dated to the last confirmed sighting in 1662, reported by shipwrecked mariner Volkert Evertsz", but other sources suggest 1681.

Roberts points out that because the sighting prior to 1662 was in 1638, the Dodo was likely already very rare by the 1660s. However, statistical analysis of the hunting records of Isaac Joan Lamotius, carried out by Julian Hume and coworkers, gives a new estimated extinction date of 1693, with a 95% confidence interval of 1688 to 1715.

The last known Dodo was killed less than 100 years after the species' discovery, and no complete specimens are preserved, although a number of museum collections contain Dodo skeletons. A Dodo egg is on display at the East London museum in South Africa. Genetic material has been recovered from these and its analysis has confirmed that the Dodo was a close relative of pigeon species that are to be found in Africa and especially South Asia.

Few took particular notice of the extinct bird until it became featured as a character in Lewis Carrolls’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). With the popularity of the book, the Dodo became a household word: "as dead as a Dodo".

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