You may have heard the expression “dead as a dodo”. But do  you know what a ‘dodo’ is, and can you find it anywhere now?
The dodo, a giant and flightless bird related to the pigeon family (though it had little resemblance to the pigeon), existed many years ago on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It had a big body, a large head and hooked bill and very short legs.       
The wings of the dodo, since it had no need for flying, had become very small and could not function as wings at all. The only way the bird could move about was by waddling along slowly.
In around 1505, the Portuguese discovered the peculiar-looking dodo when they landed on the island of Mauritius; they called it ‘doudo’ (meaning simpleton). They found that they could knock the bird over with clubs. The dodo’s nest was a heap of grass on which it laid one large egg.
Some of the early dodos may have been eaten by European sailors who discovered them. However, the primary causes of their extinction were the destruction of the forest (which cut off the dodo’s food supply) and the animals that the sailors brought with them to Mauritius, including feral dogs, pigs and monkeys, which destroyed the dodo’s nests and eggs. By the year 1681 the dodo, along with many other birds, had vanished forever because of their inability to stand up to humans and the animals imported by them. 
Reports of sightings of dodos in Mauritius in the 1990s led to some expeditions to search for them, but none were found.