By IRATI EGORHO DIEZ, age 10
PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons
Have you ever heard the expression, “Dead as a Dodo?”
If you have you must know it refers to the dodo bird. The dodo is an extinct, flightless bird. The last dodo ever seen was seen in the year 1662 although the last dodo was killed in 1681 by Dutch that settled in Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean. At the time there were no predators in Mauritius so the dodo lost its ability to fly. Many other flightless birds lived among the dodo such as, the Red Rail, Rodrigues Rail and Roudiges Solitaire. The dodo was brownish-gray, with yellow feet, and a tuft of feathers as a tail. It’s head was gray with a black yellow or green beak. The exact appearance of the dodo is not known as it was extinct over 350 years ago. Doves and pigeons are surviving cousins of the dodo bird.
