The International Dodo Association is in Berlin and is involved with all things concerning the Dodo Bird.

The Dodo as it is commonly known is an extinct bird from the island of Mauritius. Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean, was the home of this peculiar flightless bird. A decision in Europe caused its extinction because it knew no natural enemies.

Europe was getting their spices from Asia, then called the Indies, a decision to raise the price of pepper by certain merchants in the Middle East started its downfall and disappearance.

In 1492 Columbus decided to find India and by doing everything wrong became famous for discovering America. Further journeys around Africa by other explorers eventually brought seafarers to the island of Mauritius. The first known records about Mauritius are Arabic, the Portuguese followed but neither of them caused any harm to the environment. The Dutch began to use the island on a regular basis because the need of wood was supplied by the natural forest of Mauritius. Consequently, the sailors started killing the local animals, amongst them the Dodo. This bird was an easy prey and could be killed with a club or stick. Reports claim that 2 of these birds could feed 100 men.

With the sailors came, rats, pigs, cats, dogs and monkeys. The Dodo had a peculiar way of leaving its egg on the ground and was incapable to defend these. So extinction came slowly and in less than 100 hundred years the bird was gone. Interestingly, some were brought to Europe and to India and these records and paintings have inspired many a painter of that day. Roughly 125 paintings, sketches or etchings exist, although we must admit that the size of the bird must have been thinner on the island of Mauritius.

The bird became fatter in captivity so we all believe it to be a bit clumsy because of its size. Fact is, the bird could not fly and was an easy prey. Other animals also were lost, like a giant turtle, a blue parrot and so forth but the Dodo was the most famous and it achieved more and more fame because of several happenings.

Many museums have remains of parts of the Dodo, be they in Africa or Europe, unfortunately England destroyed the only specimen because of its smell, so today some bones and a head or beak only remain.

Lewis Carrol wrote Alice in Wonderland and used the Dodo as a character in the book. Today artist, i.e.. Painters or musicians tell us the story about the Dodo, books are continuously written about this historical bird and it seems that after its death, mankind has found it truly interesting. Maybe the desire to touch or see it, is deep in many a soul, but being "dead as a Dodo" is the lesson we learned the hard way.

We, at the Dodohaus try to gather information about the Dodo, we collect all sorts of memorabilia, paintings and curiosities, reports on and about the bird and inform anyone who is interested about this cute/ugly bird. We want to motivate artist to make their own version of the Dodo, here we support them through exhibitions or contracts for customers.

Some of the information is in English, a bit in French, mostly German, this is strange at first but there was a Dodo in a Menagerie under the Kaiser Rudolf II and this bird was painted by many painters, mostly by Roland Savery. Two of these paintings are found in the Gemälde Gallery in Berlin, the Natural History Museum in Berlin has a very nice prepared Dodo, finally many books were written in German and reports from Dutch travels were also written in German.

The bird is on the coat of arms of the island of Mauritius, nevertheless, nearly every country has certain interests in the Dodo. From Australia, South Africa (which has the only known egg), Mozambique, Zanzibar, Holland - Netherlands, Denmark, England, Germany, France, Russia, USA, all of these countries have something about the Dodo. Exhibitions in Switzerland and other places have only increased the popularity.

Pop icons like Genesis and David Bowie have written songs about the Dodo, the island of Jersey has a conservation trust using the Dodo, in Holland we have an ecoparc using the Dodo as guide.

We know that India had at least 2 Dodos because the paintings of Ustad Mansoor or Mansur confirm this.

The Dodo Association is supported by it's members, to cover running costs we organise events with painters and musicians. For more information about when, check under Termine.

For more info in English and a bountiful link page to discover this bird we recommend:
English and Links.

We put new creations about the Dodo on the net, so do come again and see for yourself.

Different names used for the Dodo by early travellers - Namen die der Vogel hatte