12 Animals The Human Race Tragically Killed Off

10. Dodo (Extinct 17th Century)

Dodo Skeleton
Wikimedia Commons

So famous is the extinction of this flightless bird that the phrase "dead as a dodo" has been coined.

Endemic to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, the dodo (Raphus cucullatus) lived a happy existence until Dutch sailors arrived in 1598. Then the bird and its eggs were hunted for food by the Dutch sailors, by the domesticated animals who had also arrived, as well as the predatory species already endemic to Mauritius.

The last widely-accepted sighting of the bird - who appears in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" - was in 1662, though. This extinction brought to the fore the fact that humans could contribute to the rapid decline of animals for the first time.

 
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NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.