Dodo

Dead as a dodo

The dodo, a relative of pigeons (Columbidae), is perhaps the most famous example of a species driven to extinction by humans. Representations of the bird in literature and art are common, such as in the third chapter of the children’s book Alice in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll or in the paintings of the Flemish artist Roelant Savery.

More has been written about the dodo of Mauritius, also known as the Dronte, than about any other extinct bird species. Despite its fame and the great interest it attracts, we surprisingly know very little about it. No complete skeleton exists anywhere in the world, and much about its vocalizations, appearance, behavior, and even the origin of its name remains speculative to this day.

Earlier depictions show the bird as a bulky, fat, and clumsy creature with pitifully small wings. The name itself hardly suggests a majestic bird: “dodo” might be derived from the Portuguese word “doudo,” meaning “fool” or “simpleton.” After the Portuguese discovered the Mascarene island of Mauritius in 1506 or 1507, the Dutch arrived and called the birds “Dronten.” The species epithet of the former scientific name Didus ineptus, which means “stupid” in Latin, reflects the negative image that science held of the dodo for a long time.

However, recent research from 2024, conducted by evolutionary biologists Mark T. Young and Neil J. Gostling, suggests that our image of the dodo needs to be revised. Bone analyses show that the tendon controlling its toes was exceptionally strong, similar to modern climbing and running birds. This indicates that the bird was an active, fast runner – quite the opposite of the old portrayals of a fat, sluggish bird hopelessly trying to escape humans.

The idea that dodos were active and fast is also supported by a report from a Dutch sailor in 1631, who observed one of these birds. The account reads:

“They are extremely calm or majestic, they presented themselves to us with an extremely dark face and an open beak, their gait was swift and confident, and they hardly avoided us.”

The Song of the Dodo, 2001, p. 354. D. Quammen

It is noteworthy that this eyewitness did not describe the Dronte as ugly, stupid, or fat, but instead characterized it with terms like “calm,” “confident,” and “majestic.” The flightless dodo, often seen as a symbol of evolutionary failure, was in reality not a fat and slow bird, but perfectly adapted to its environment, the forests of Mauritius.

Dodo – Fact Sheet

Scientific name	Raphus cucullatus, Didus ineptus, Struthio cucullatus, Cygnus cucullatus, Didus nazarenus
Original range	Mauritius (Mascarenes, Indian Ocean)
Date of extinction	between 1662 and 1693
Causes of extinction	animals introduced to the island, hunting
IUCN status	extinct

Reconstruction of the dodo’s appearance

The dodo specimens we see in museums today are not actual stuffed animals but reconstructions made from wire and plaster, adorned with feathers from other bird species. Since only partial skeletons and scattered bones of the bird exist, these reconstructions are our only way to imagine what the dodo looked like. Alongside these remains, we rely on contemporary written descriptions and a series of paintings and engravings dating back to the 1600s, created between its discovery (1598) and its extinction (around 1662).

A major issue with these old depictions of the dodo is that they are often exaggerated, rendering the bird unattractive, ridiculous, or even distorted: a bulky body, an oversized beak, a bare face, or a prominent feather crown on its head are some examples. Today, it is believed that later artists carelessly copied earlier ones and that hardly any artist ever saw a dodo in the wild.

The famous Oxford dodo

At the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in England, there is the only known specimen of the dodo that still retains soft tissue, such as skin and feathers. These remains come from a bird brought to Europe in the 17th century, likely as a living animal that later died and was preserved. The Oxford dodo is considered one of the few direct sources that help researchers reconstruct the bird’s appearance and physical characteristics.

The bird was once part of a significant collection gathered by the well-known collectors and naturalists John Tradescant the Elder and John Tradescant the Younger. This collection, known as Musaeum Tradescantianum, was the first public museum in 17th-century England and contained many exotic objects and animal specimens from around the world. It was also referred to as Tradescant’s Ark.

After the death of John Tradescant the Younger in 1662, Elias Ashmole, an antiquarian and friend of the family, inherited the collection. Ashmole donated it to the University of Oxford in 1677, where it formed the basis of the Ashmolean Museum, opened in 1683. Over time, the dodo specimen was transferred to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, most of the specimen deteriorated in the 18th century due to mold and pests, leaving only the mummified head with the beak and one leg.

The dodo: Feathers, size, and weight

Most depictions show the bird with gray, bluish-gray, or brownish plumage, lighter wing feathers, and a tuft of curly, light-colored feathers on its rear. As Julian P. Hume notes in Extinct Birds (2017), the feather coloration may have varied. The dodo’s head was gray and bare, its beak showed a mix of green, black, and yellow, and its strong legs were yellowish with black claws. The beak was impressively large and strong, measuring over 20 centimeters in length. Its wings were very small, and its chest muscles were weak, making it flightless. Studies of the few remaining feathers on the Oxford dodo’s head revealed that they were rather stiff, similar to other pigeon species.

The oldest known description of the dodo’s appearance likely comes from the Dutch seafarer Jacob Cornelius van Neck, who reached Mauritius in 1598:

“(…) a large type, bigger than our swans, with a thick head, half-covered with a hood-like skin. These birds lack wings, with three or four blackish feathers in their place. The tail consists of a few narrow, curved feathers of a gray color.”

The Song of the Dodo, 2001, p. 351. D. Quammen

Sailors sometimes described the birds as rather unattractive and covered only with down, while other reports praised their magnificent tail feathers. This discrepancy in the reports was clarified by Delphine Angst in a 2017 bone study at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. By analyzing the microstructure of the bones, she traced the life rhythm of the dodos and discovered that the birds molted, or shed their feathers, in March. This explains why some depictions show the bird nearly naked.

The dodo was about 62.5 to 75 centimeters tall and exhibited sexual dimorphism: males were larger than females and likely had longer beaks. Regarding weight, estimates varied depending on the study. In 1993, American ornithologist Bradley C. Livezey suggested in An Ecomorphological Review of the Dodo and the Solitaire that males weighed around 21 kilograms and females about 17 kilograms. These estimates were based on the length of the femur of flight-capable pigeons, adjusted for flightlessness and seasonal fat deposits in dodos.

In 2011, Angst and her team made another estimate in The End of the Fat Dodo? using the lengths of the femur, tibia, and tarsometatarsus. The newly determined average weight of the bird was 10.2 kilograms, significantly lower than in previous studies. According to the authors, this lower weight supports the hypothesis that contemporary depictions of extremely fat birds were either exaggerations or based on overfed specimens in captivity. Images of “fat” dodos could also have depicted birds engaged in courtship behavior with fluffed-up feathers.

Little is known about the ecology of the dodo

Our knowledge of the dodo is extremely limited. Information regarding its diet, reproduction, preferred habitats, and its role in the ecosystem is sparse and often fragmentary. The few available details primarily come from early sailors’ reports and the limited remains of this bird that have been found.

It is believed that the dodo primarily fed on fallen fruits, seeds, and tubers. Its large beak allowed it to swallow large fruits and store fat reserves, which helped it survive periods of food scarcity. Historical depictions and reports suggest that the birds were quite plump, which aligns with the fat and lean cycles documented in many Mauritian vertebrates, both living and extinct.

Like modern pigeons and chickens, the dodo likely had a crop or gizzard, meaning it swallowed small stones or pebbles to help grind tough food such as seeds, grains, or fibrous plant material. Its sharply curved beak may have been used to tear pieces from large fruits, which it held down with its strong claws on the ground.

According to Delphine Angst’s 2017 study, the dodo’s breeding season likely began in August, following a period of possible fat accumulation, with females beginning ovulation. It is believed that after hatching, the chicks quickly grew to nearly adult size and soon reached sexual maturity. Molting likely began in March, starting with the replacement of the wing and tail feathers. Molting would have been complete by the end of July, in time for the next breeding season. These findings align with observations of modern birds on Mauritius and are supported by historical descriptions.

Little is known about the vocalizations of the dodo. A witness in 1638 noted that the bird made a honking sound similar to a goose. A Dutch sailor reported in 1662:

“When we held one by the leg, it let out a cry, and others came running to assist the captured one, only to be seized as well.”

The Song of the Dodo, 2001, p. 346. D. Quammen

The distress call of an animal, of course, should not be confused with the natural call of the species. In Extinct Birds (2000), Erol Fuller presents the plausible theory that the word “dodo” – likely coined by Portuguese sailors – may be an onomatopoeic imitation of the bird’s call. Thus, the bird’s call may have consisted of two tones resembling a pigeon-like sequence, sounding something like “doo-doo.”

Not a delicacy, but still hunted

Mauritius in its original state was an island without land mammals and humans – there were no rodents, carnivores, or omnivores. Some large reptiles, such as the Mauritius giant skink, were present, but they posed no threat to a 20-kilogram bird. Thus, the dodo had no natural enemies and did not develop any flight or defense mechanisms. Its evolutionary inability to fly was not an issue. Since the bird lived on an island free from predators, it showed no fear of the sudden appearance of sailors – a phenomenon known as island tameness or ecological naivety – and became easy prey as a result.

Whenever European sailors made stops on Mauritius in the 16th or 17th centuries, they killed dodos to provide fresh meat for their often hungry crews on long voyages through the Indian Ocean. Various reports suggest that dodo meat was useful as provisions for long sea journeys. It is also reported that sailors consumed the bird’s eggs in large quantities.

However, the dodo does not seem to have been a culinary delicacy. In van Neck’s report from 1598, it is stated: “We call them Walckvögel, because the longer they are cooked, the less palatable they become.” The Dutch term “Walckvogel” can be translated as “disgusting,” “tasteless,” or “sickly bird.” Although the meat was tough, sailors who landed on Mauritius had no other choice but to eat it.

Several years after van Neck’s expedition, at the beginning of the 17th century, another ship reached Mauritius. The ship’s log records that many dodos were killed. A group sent out to forage returned with several fat birds to the ship. “Three or four of them [provided] an ample meal for the entire crew,” with “a good portion” left over. Ten days later, the group brought back 24 of these birds; “everything that remained was salted.” On a later hunt, they caught “another half a hundred birds during the three days they were out, including about 20 dodos, which they brought aboard and salted.”

The dodo was not the only animal on Mauritius that exhibited ecological naivety. Many native animals, including flight-capable birds, tortoises, and other wildlife, displayed an unusual tameness. A 1611 travel report, which pays special attention to the dodo, describes this as follows:

“In color, they are gray; people call them Totersten or Walckvögel; they exist there in large numbers, so that the Dutch caught and ate many daily. For not only these, but all birds in general are so tame that they beat turtle doves, other pigeons, and parrots with sticks and caught them with their bare hands. They also caught the Totersten or Walckvögel by hand, but had to be careful that these birds did not bite their arms or legs with their beaks, which are very strong, thick, and curved; for they tend to bite with great force.”

The Song of the Dodo, 2001, p. 354. D. Quammen

The lack of fear toward humans, which had no evolutionary necessity in the isolated island environment of Mauritius, left the endemic animals defenseless against the new threats brought by European settlers. This naivety not only led to the extinction of the dodo but also many other species, such as the saddle-backed Mauritius giant tortoise, the Mauritius rail, the Mauritius goose, and the Mascarene coot, which were also wiped out in the 16th or 17th century.

The main reason for extinction was different

Findings from the 2024 study by Young and Gostling reveal that the dodo lived without threats on Mauritius for approximately 25 million years – until rats and cats arrived on the island from European sailors’ ships.

It is, therefore, unlikely that the sailors’ consumption of the bird alone caused its extinction. However, humans were responsible because they introduced invasive species like rats, feral pets, monkeys, and pigs to the island. These animals posed a significant threat to the dodo, which previously had no natural predators on Mauritius. They destroyed the bird’s ground nests and ate its eggs.

Due to its inability to fly, the dodo was forced to nest on the ground. Historical sources report that birds laid only a single white, pear-sized egg during the breeding season. If this is true, the low number of eggs per clutch was particularly problematic for the species. This low reproductive rate made the dodo extremely vulnerable to losses, especially from invasive species that threatened its few offspring. This would have had devastating effects on the population and the species’ long-term survival.

According to Quammen, pigs that multiplied uncontrollably on the island posed the greatest threat to the dodos. As omnivores, pigs were not dependent on specific food sources, leading to unchecked population growth. Reports from the late 17th century indicate that pigs significantly hindered the reproduction of land and sea turtles by consuming their eggs.

Quammen also considers the monkeys, which mysteriously arrived on Mauritius in the 16th century, as a serious threat to the dodo. Historical records from 1709, after the dodo had already gone extinct, report that a traveler saw around 4,000 monkeys on the island. The monkeys, specifically the crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis), are also omnivores, and their presence made life – and reproduction – challenging for ground-nesting birds.

In 2006, a research team led by Kenneth Rijsdijk discovered a mass grave on Mauritius containing dodo bones, along with other animal bones and plant seeds, as reported by the BBC. Experts interpreted this discovery as a potential clue to the bird’s extinction. It could indicate a natural disaster – possibly a cyclone or a sudden rise in sea levels – that may have wiped out a significant portion of the population before humans arrived.

The dodo and its extinct sister species, the Rodrigues solitaire, are iconic examples of the devastating impact of human influence on nature. These originally flight-capable pigeon species likely became extinct within a century of their first contact with humans.

When did the dodo go extinct?

It wasn’t until the 19th century that the extinction of the dodo was officially recognized, even though sailors and naturalists had reported the rarity of the bird as early as the 17th century, and the French found no dodos when they resettled Mauritius in 1721.This delay was partly due to religious beliefs at the time, which held that species extinction was impossible, as it conflicted with the contemporary understanding of creation. It was not until French naturalist and paleontologist Georges Cuvier, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, challenged this view through his work with fossils. He observed that certain species found in older geological layers were absent from newer ones, concluding that these species must have gone extinct.

In 1833, the dodo was presented as an example of human-caused extinction in Penny Magazine, a British publication aimed at educating the general public. This groundbreaking portrayal helped introduce the concept of extinction due to human activities into public and scientific discourse. The article solidified the dodo’s image as an iconic symbol of species extinction and raised awareness of the environmental impact of human actions.

The precise date of the bird’s extinction is debated. Many consider the last credible report from 1690, in which the Englishman Benjamin Harry described a dodo on Mauritius, as the species’ final appearance. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) also believes the species ceased to exist after 1690. However, it is widely accepted that the species was likely extinct by 1693. That year, French explorer François Leguat visited Mauritius, and his inventory of the island’s fauna made no mention of dodos.

Some experts point to an eyewitness account from 1662 as the last reliable sighting of a dodo. That year, Dutchman Volquard Iversen (Volkert Evertsen) and his crew were shipwrecked on Mauritius. They found no dodos on the main island but reportedly encountered some on a small offshore islet accessible by foot at low tide. Iversen wrote:

“Among other birds, there were those called ‘doddaersen’ by people in the Indian colonies; they were larger than geese but could not fly. Instead of wings, they had small wing flaps; however, they could run very fast.”

The Song of the Dodo, 2001, p. 362. D. Quammen

In addition to the interesting note that dodos were fast runners, Iversen’s report of birds on a small islet is ecologically plausible. It is likely that the last remaining birds retreated to the islet to protect themselves from the introduced species that preyed on them and their eggs. Unfortunately, the Dutch killed some of these dodos, which may have been the last of their kind. After just five days, Iversen and his men were rescued by a passing ship.

British ornithologist Anthony S. Cheke, an expert on the birdlife of the Mascarene Islands, examined historical records and concluded that the last credible accounts of living dodos date to 1662, as mentioned by Iversen. Cheke believes that later sightings were likely misidentified reports of the flightless Mauritius rail (Aphanapteryx bonasia), which also went extinct around 1700.

Paleornithologist Julian P. Hume, in Extinct Birds (2017), notes that historical reports mention dodos until the 1640s, but references disappear in the following two decades. Hume argues that Iversen’s 1662 report may not describe an actual encounter with dodos, especially since the specific islet in question remains unidentified. Hume emphasizes that copying travel reports, particularly those of van Neck, was common practice at the time, making it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction in historical records.

Are there more than one species of dodo?

Older sources indicate that there were three species of dodo, as mentioned in Igor Akimuschkin’s book Vom Aussterben bedroht? (1972). These three species were said to have lived on the Mascarene Islands, which include the archipelagos of Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues. The species mentioned, in addition to the dodo, include the Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria) and the Réunion solitaire (Ornithaptera solitaria) or white dodo (Raphus solitarius).

However, in a 2002 DNA analysis, a research team from Oxford University, led by American biologist Beth Shapiro, found that the dodo is closely related only to the extinct Rodrigues solitaire and the still-existing, mostly ground-dwelling Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica).

The so-called white dodo, mentioned in earlier reports, is now believed never to have existed. Scientists suspect that it was likely the extinct Réunion ibis, which was native to the island of Réunion. This also explains why no fossil remains of a dodo have ever been found on Réunion.

Over the centuries, numerous species of dodos were described, leading to significant confusion, as it was unclear which species actually existed. The records of these supposed species are often contradictory, inaccurate, and unreliable. In their 2024 study, researchers Young and Gostling conducted a comprehensive historical review of the nomenclature of the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire. They examined old specimens, reports of living birds, and early taxonomic descriptions to separate fact from fiction. They concluded that many of the described species were fictitious, such as the Nazarene dodo (Didus nazarenus). The Rodrigues solitaire, on the other hand, long thought to be mythological, did indeed exist and lived on the nearby island of Rodrigues.

The limited amount of preserved material in natural history collections meant that naturalists of the 18th and early 19th centuries often based scientific names for dodo species on reports written before the species’ extinction. As a result, no type specimens were ever named for the dodo or the solitaire.

How the dodo became a pigeon

By the mid-19th century, no fossil remains of the dodo had been discovered, leading some experts around 1800 to question its existence, despite the fact that a head and foot were preserved in Oxford, another foot in London, and skulls in Prague and Copenhagen from living birds. Many still considered the bird to be a mythical creature.

British naturalists John S. Duncan (1828) and William J. Broderip (1837) were among the first to gather all available information about the species to prove that it was a real species and not a mythical figure. The first comprehensive monograph on the dodo, The Dodo and its Kindred, published by Hugh E. Strickland and Alexander G. Melville in 1848, aimed to separate myth from reality. In this work, anatomist Melville describes the physical remains of the dodo and compares the bird with the then-known remains of the Rodrigues solitaire.

The authors were granted permission to dissect the head of the Oxford dodo, which ultimately confirmed that the bird was a giant, ground-dwelling pigeon. Comparison with the solitaire showed that, while the two birds were not identical, they shared many distinctive features of the leg bones that are characteristic of pigeons. As early as 1842, Danish zoologist Johannes Theodor Reinhardt had controversially proposed, after examining a dodo skull, that the bird belonged to the pigeon family. This view was initially ridiculed, as scientists had previously speculated whether the dodo was a small ostrich, a rail, an albatross, or even a vulture.

The monograph by Strickland and Melville sparked significant public and scientific interest in the bird and led to a race to discover the first dodo fossils.

First fossil finds and the subsequent dispute

In 1865, Harry Higginson, who worked for the Mauritius government railway, accidentally stumbled upon workers digging up bones in a swampy area called Mare aux Songes. He recalls the moment in his Reminiscences of Life and Travel 1859-1872:

“Shortly before the completion of the railway I was walking along the embankment one morning, when I noticed some [workers] removing some peat soil from a small morass. They were separating and placing into heaps, a number of bones, of various sorts, among the debris. I stopped and examined them, as they appeared to belong to birds and reptiles, and we had always been on the lookout for bones of the then mythical Dodo. So I filled my pocket with the most promising ones for further examination.”

Reminiscences of Life and Travel 1859-1872. 1891. H. Higginson

Higginson brought the bones to George Clark, who was also on Mauritius and owned “Professor Owen’s book on the dodo,” to compare the finds with the illustrations. It became clear that many of the bones were undoubtedly from that bird. Clark was then tasked with leading the search for more bone material in Mare aux Songes, located in the southwest of Mauritius. Higginson further recalls:

“I sent a box full to the Liverpool, York, and Leeds Museums, from which, in the former, a complete skeleton was erected. This is the only spot in the world where theses bones have been found; and all that are now to be seen in various collections, came out of the same bog, only 200 feet in diameter.”

Reminiscences of Life and Travel 1859-1872. 1891. H. Higginson

The discovery of the first fossilized dodo remains in the Mare aux Songes swamp led to a focused effort to scientifically document the bird’s postcranial anatomy, as described in How Owen ‘Stole’ the Dodo (2009) by Hume and Cheke.

George Clark, who likely discovered the site, initially sent bone samples to Richard Owen, a renowned comparative anatomist at the British Museum. He later sent more material through Edward Newton, who was stationed on Mauritius, to Edward’s brother, zoologist Alfred Newton in Cambridge. However, after receiving the first shipment, Owen intercepted the material intended for Alfred Newton and used his position to preempt any complaints from the Newtons.

Owen then became the first to publish his findings and emphasized the significance of his discoveries in public lectures and exhibitions. At the same time, he ensured that Clark was financially rewarded to secure his support. This maneuver led to considerable tension, particularly with the Newton brothers, who felt sidelined. Additionally, Clark had disputes with Higginson, who also claimed rights to the discovery site. Clark attempted to conceal the abundance of dodo bones to keep fossil prices high, causing further conflicts.

The rivalry between Owen and the Newton brothers, fueled by academic jealousy and the quest for scientific recognition, culminated in a long-standing feud. Despite this, Owen went on to formally describe the bird’s skeletal anatomy in his works Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus) (1866) and On the Dodo (Part II) (1872), without giving proper credit to Clark or the Newtons.

Further significant discoveries

At the beginning of the 20th century, the collector Etienne Thirioux discovered an almost complete skeleton of a dodo, likely in a valley cave on the slopes of Le Pouce, the third-highest mountain on Mauritius. In 2006, during an investigation of Mauritian caves for cockroaches, another skeleton, known as “Dodo Fred,” was discovered by chance. This skeleton was named after the caver who found the bones and came from a lava cave in the highlands of Mauritius. It is the second dodo skeleton to be definitively attributed to a single individual. According to Julian Hume, the discovery of these two nearly complete skeletons suggests that dodos were widespread in both the central mountainous regions and the lowland coastal areas of the island.

In The Discovery of a Dodo in a Highland Mauritian Cave (2016), caver Gregory J. Middleton and Julian Hume describe the circumstances surrounding the discovery of Dodo Fred. Initially celebrated as a major scientific breakthrough, this skeleton is the best-preserved and most complete dodo skeleton known, belonging to a single individual. What is particularly remarkable is that Dodo Fred was found in his original death position. His body had apparently slipped into a small crevice, with part of his beak and one foot remaining visible above the surface.

Most other dodo bones were found in the swampy Mare aux Songes, where the hot, humid, and acidic environment severely impacted DNA preservation. Scientists hoped that the cave environment might provide better conditions for DNA conservation, as the bones were not exposed to sunlight and the temperature remained relatively constant. Unfortunately, subsequent investigations revealed that the skeleton contained no surviving collagen, indicating that the DNA had also degraded. Despite this setback, the discovery of Dodo Fred remains scientifically significant, as it expands the known habitat of dodos to the cooler, wetter highland regions of Mauritius and rekindles interest in this iconic species.

Globally, 26 museums house significant collections of dodo remains, almost all of which originate from the Mare aux Songes swamp. Some of these museums, including the Natural History Museum in London, the American Museum of Natural History, the Zoological Museum of the University of Cambridge, and the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt/Main (Germany), possess nearly complete skeletons assembled from the scattered subfossil remains of several dodos. In 2011, during preparations for relocation, a wooden box was rediscovered at the Grant Museum of University College London. The box contained dodo bones from the Edwardian era (1901–1910) that had been stored alongside crocodile bones until then.

Can the dodo be cloned?

On January 31, 2023, scientists from Colossal Biosciences announced their intention to revive the dodo using modern genetic engineering. Previously, the start-up had already unveiled plans to clone the mammoth and the thylacine.

The researchers are building on the work of Beth Shapiro, who in 2002 successfully reconstructed the mitochondrial DNA of the dodo. However, because this genetic material has degraded significantly over the centuries, it is not sufficient to clone the bird on its own. Instead, the scientists plan to modify the genome of the closely related Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) to create a bird that closely resembles the dodo. The genetically altered material would then be implanted into an egg of the Nicobar pigeon, and ideally, a viable offspring would develop.

Cloning an extinct species is not only technically challenging but also raises additional issues. One of the biggest challenges is that no living dodos exist to teach the cloned offspring necessary social behaviors. Moreover, the cloned bird would have to return to an environment that has changed significantly since the 17th century. Today’s ecosystems on Mauritius are vastly different from those in which the dodo once lived, which could severely impact the survival chances of such an animal in the wild.

Although no birds have been successfully cloned to date, Colossal Biosciences‘ efforts have already led to the development of new tools in avian genomics. These could potentially be used to save endangered species by increasing the genetic diversity of small populations. Given these possibilities, the question arises whether it would be more beneficial to invest these resources in protecting threatened species, rather than creating a dodo clone that would ultimately only be an approximation of the original bird.