When people hear the word “dodo,” it usually conjures up an image of a goofy, overweight bird that waddled straight into extinction. The dodo bird has long served as the ultimate symbol of evolutionary failure, mocked as slow, stupid, and destined for doom the moment it crossed paths with humanity.
But if one were to peel back the layers of myth, caricature, and historical half-truths, a very different story emerges, which reveals that the dodo was actually a complex, resilient, and deeply misunderstood creature. Its extinction (far from a simple case of “survival of the fittest”) was driven by a web of invasive species, habitat disruption, and human carelessness.
What really happened to the dodo? Was it truly as helpless as history has claimed, or did humanity’s impact reach far deeper than we often admit? Click through this gallery to find out.