The Dodo of Mauritius

Everywhere in Mauritius the holidaymaker meets the heraldic animal of the island: the dodo as cuddly toy, on t-shirts, coins and towels. Still, he already became extinct during the 17th century. The Dutch settlers were fond of the bird’s meat and the dodo, who had lived without natural enemies on Mauritius for the last thousands of years, was quickly exterminated – or as we would say “dead as a dodo”. The skeleton of the dodo can now be visited in the Museum of Natural History in Port Louis.