When did the dodo become extinct?

Not until 1681, and mainly because humans and animals ate the remaining eggs.

The dodo, first found on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, was the size of a very large turkey. It was slow and defenseless, save for its hooked beak.

To complicate matters, it did not reproduce well, as the female laid only one egg each year. The death knell came in the 1600s, however, when Dutch colonists on Mauritius found the eggs palatable.

Other animals also found them edible, and soon the dodo was gone.

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