An extinct flightless bird that inhabited island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, fossil remains show the the Dodo was about one metre tall and may have weighed 10–18 kg. The only account we have of the Dodo’s appearance is through only by drawings, paintings, and written accounts from the 17th century so its exact appearance remains unresolved.
It is presumed the bird became flightless due to the availability of abundant food sources (seeds, roots and fallen fruits) and a relative absence of predators. Dutch sailors first recorded a mention of the dodo in 1598. The bird was hunted to extinction by sailors and their domesticated animals, and invasive species. The last widely accepted sighting of a Dodo was in 1662.
What happened to the last Dodo bird?
Also, the sailors hunted down many of the trusting birds simply by walking up to them and picking them up or using a machete on them. This in itself is a very sad story, since there was nothing “stupid” about the dodo (as they are infamously but wrongly known). They were just trusting of humans because they’d never seen any other animal that was able to hurt them in any way. Fearless curiosity, rather than stupidity, is a more fitting description of their behavior. (Source : forbes.com)