The dodo has been extinct since 1681. Its demise was caused by humans hunting the bird to near-extinction and then introducing dogs and pigs, which became feral and finished the job. Few took particular notice of the bird immediately after its extinction. By the early 19th century it seemed altogether too strange a creature, and was believed by many to be a myth. In 1848, H. E. Strickland and A. G. Melville published a book titled “The Dodo and Its Kindred; or the History, Affinities, and Osteology of the Dodo, Solitaire, and Other Extinct Birds of the Islands Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Bourbon” in which they attempted to separate Dodo myth from reality. With the discovery of the first batch of dodo bones in the Mauritian swamp, the Mare aux Songes, and the reports written about them by George Clarke, government schoolmaster at Mahébourg, from 1865 on, interest in the bird was rekindled. The dodo was considered part of the pigeon and dove family. Its height was about 39 inches (100 cm) and is believed to weight between 23-50 pounds. The traditional image of the dodo is of a fat, clumsy bird. The general opinion of scientists today is that the old European drawings showed overfed captive specimens. The Dodo, having been isolated by its island location from contact with humanity, greeted the new visitors with a child-like innocence. The sailors mistook the gentle spirit of the dodo, and its lack of fear of the new predators, as stupidity. They dubbed the bird "dodo" (meaning something similar to a simpleton in the Portuguese tongue). Today, the Dodo is probably the most recognizable symbol of extinction. Currently, one-in-five species on this planet are on the brink of extinction primarily due to us. Rendered in Iray without postwork,