As Dead as a Dodo

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We often use the figure of speech ‘dead as a dodo' without thinking of the tragedy of species loss.  The dodo bird once thrived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.  It was a flightless bird, about the size of a large turkey, weighing up to twenty-two kilograms.

Dodos were discovered in the fifteen hundreds by Portuguese sailors.  These weird looking, fat grey birds with huge hooked beaks were waddling all over the island.  Having no previous contact with humans, the dodos showed absolutely no fear.  Mistaking their fearlessness for stupidity, the sailors called them dodos - a Portuguese word meaning foolish.  Since the dodos didn't try to avoid the hunters, and since they were ground nesting birds, they provided a cheap and easy meal for the first settlers.

As Mauritius was colonized and the population of imported animals increased, dodo eggs and chicks became a popular snack for the growing non-human population.  Livestock competed for the food supply, hunters killed large numbers, and encroaching civilization destroyed their habitat.  By 1693, the dodo was entirely wiped out.  Its immortality remains only in the well known phrase ‘dead as a dodo.'

Since the dodo's demise, global extinction of many species has grown enormously.

So next time you hear something is ‘dead as a dodo,' remember it's better to live in obscurity than to be well known in extinction.