What was the habitat of the dodo bird?

The dodo bird inhabited the forests of Mauritius. Mauritius is an island located about 550 miles east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Dodos, now extinct, were indigenous only to this small, isolated island.

Dodos were plump, flightless birds with no natural predators. Sailors first discovered the dodo in the 16th century, and found hunting it to be very easy. This, along with the human introduction of predators, decimated the dodo population. Dogs, pigs and rats fed on the dodos' nest eggs and on small chicks. Farming also destroyed dodo habitats and food sources. The last known sighting of a dodo bird was in 1662.