Why the Dodo Bird?

In the last 400 years, at least 75 bird species became extinct. Of all these tragic species, the dodo is the best known. How did the dodo gain so much popular attention, when it went extinct way back in the 1680’s? Well, when Europeans first landed on the island of Mauritius, in 1598, they encountered a strange bird. It was a gigantic, flightless pigeon with a huge bill and no apparent fear of predators. They named it after the Portuguese word “duodo”, meaning simpleton.