When the island became a Dutch colony in 1644, the colonists engaged in a seemingly conscious attempt to eradicate the birds, despite the fact that they were not pests or obstructive to human living. The dodos were subjected to regular slaughter by sailors, but the species managed to breed and survive on the remote areas of the island. The Dutch followed the Portuguese and made the island a Dutch possession in 1598 after which Mauritius became a regular stopover for ships traversing the Indian Ocean. Unwary of predators, the birds would walk right up to human visitors, making themselves easy prey for sailors hungry for food and sport. The Portuguese are credited with discovering Mauritius, where they found a tropical paradise with a unique collection of strange and colorful birds unafraid of humans: parrots and parakeets, pink and blue pigeons, owls, swallows, thrushes, hawks, sparrows, crows, and dodos. The dodo became extinct due to hunting by European sailors who collected the birds for food and to predation of eggs and chicks by introduced dogs, cats, pigs, monkeys, and rats. The dodo did not have natural enemies until humans discovered the island in the early sixteenth century. A member of the dove or pigeon family, and about the size of a large turkey, the dodo was a grayish white bird with a huge black-andred beak, short legs, and small wings. One of the best known extinct species, the dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ), a flightless bird native to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, disappeared around 1680.
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