• Question: What is the dodos closest realative?

    Asked by kieranandbrandon to Anna, Jonathan, Samantha, Sam on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Samantha Weaver

      Samantha Weaver answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      DNA studies have shown that the dodo belongs in the dove and pigeon family and it’s closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon, which lives in the Nicobar Islands and Southeast Asia.

    • Photo: Jonathan Kay

      Jonathan Kay answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      You can see some bits of a dodo in Oxford. It’s the same one that Lewis Carroll saw while writing “Alice”. We’ve probably mixed up a few different species of birds in our stories of dodos.

    • Photo: Angharad Davies

      Angharad Davies answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      Dodos became extinct partly because they were so easy for humans to catch. They couldn’t fly but also they wouldn’t run away – like pigeons in Trafalgar Square! so it makes sense they are related!

      There’s a Dodo in the Pirates and the Scientists film, did you see that in the spring? My kids loved it.

    • Photo: Sam Chilka

      Sam Chilka answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      See what Angharad wrote about why dodos became extinct. Although I have read that dodos were not actually that tasy to eat, and their meat was very tough too.

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