The dodo was a flightless bird that once thrived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The bird was said to have been first encountered by Dutch explorers in 1598; although the island was visited by the Portuguese in 1507, records show no mention of the birds.

Dodos are often thought to have been fat and clumsy, but scientists have largely come to reject that notion. It is thought that they did plump up during the rainy season on Mauritius when food was plentiful, but they also slimmed down in the dry season. Drawings of fat dodos that slightly resemble modern-day chickens may have been of birds during this wet season, or they may have been birds that were overfed in captivity. It is also possible that dodos that were preserved and stuffed were stuffed poorly, and that living wild dodos were much slimmer.

The blog header was created for Suzanne Grandt's piece on the dodo.