'It's just a weird, weird bird': Why we got the dodo so absurdly wrong

The dodo is one of the most famous extinct animals in the world, but for centuries, people have misunderstood what it was really like. The dodo lived only on the island of Mauritius, and it disappeared not long after people arrived there in the late 1500s. For a long time, the dodo was thought to be a fat, clumsy, and not very smart bird. This image came from old paintings and stories, but new research is showing that the dodo was actually much more interesting and well-adapted to its home.

Karen Fawcett, a palaeoartist from the UK, decided to make the most accurate model of a dodo ever. She faced a big challenge because there are very few real dodo bones or soft tissues left. Most of the old pictures of dodos were painted by artists who had never seen a live dodo, or who based their work on stuffed birds that looked nothing like the real thing. Fawcett spent years studying old drawings, bones, and even live pigeons to get the details right. She learned that the dodo was not fat and slow, but actually nimble, with a strong beak and long legs.

Scientists like Neil Gostling and Julian Hume have also been working to correct the dodo's image. They have found that the dodo was well-suited to its rocky, forested home. It could run quickly and was very agile, using its strong legs and hooked beak to survive. The dodo was not afraid of people because it had no natural predators on Mauritius. But when humans arrived, they brought animals like rats, pigs, and cats, which ate the dodo's eggs and competed for food. This led to the dodo's extinction.

Modern technology is helping scientists learn even more about the dodo. In 2016, researchers used laser scanning to create a digital model of a dodo skeleton, showing that the bird was taller and slimmer than old paintings suggested. Scientists have also studied the dodo's DNA, and some are even trying to use gene editing to bring back a dodo-like bird by changing the genes of the Nicobar pigeon, its closest living relative. This project is still in its early stages and may never fully succeed, but it could help scientists learn how to protect other endangered birds.

The story of the dodo is a warning about what can happen when humans do not take care of the environment. Many birds today are at risk of extinction, just like the dodo was. By studying the dodo's history and learning from past mistakes, scientists and conservationists hope to save other species from disappearing forever. Karen Fawcett's careful work on her dodo model, and the research of scientists like Gostling and Hume, are helping to reveal the true story of this remarkable bird and remind us of the importance of protecting wildlife.