Dodo

Timeline

1. 1651–1658Vieux Grand Port · Vieux Grand PortThe Dutch East India Company maintained a post on the southeast coast of Mauritius until 1658; sailors and colonists continuously hunted dodos and introduced pigs, rats, and monkeys that destroyed ground nests, leaving the island population extremely scarce by mid-century.
2. 1658–1662Mauritius Island · MauritiusAround the Dutch withdrawal in 1658, the main island had gone years without a widely accepted dodo sighting. Habitat clearing and introduced mammals caused ground-nesting to fail, forcing the last individuals onto small offshore islands, bringing the species to the edge of functional extinction.
3. 1662Île d'Ambre · Île d'AmbreIn 1662 Volckert Evertsz, a shipwrecked sailor from the Dutch ship Arnhem, saw and captured a large flightless bird on a small offshore island; this is the last widely recognized dodo sighting. The IUCN accordingly set the extinction year at around 1662.