New research led by University of Lethbridge scientists offers the most detailed look yet at how the dodo (Raphus cucullatus) — the flightless bird driven to extinction by the 1600s — actually perceived its world, suggesting the ‘stupid bird’ had a far more complex sensory life than its reputation implies.
The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) by Frederick William Frohawk, 1905.
The dodo and its close relative, the Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), are two of the most recognized symbols of human-caused extinction.
Yet, despite their prominence in the scientific and popular literature, little is known about their behavior.
“Few animals symbolize human impact on nature as intensely as the dodo,” said University of Lethbridge Ph.D. student Sara Citron and her colleagues.
“Endemic to Mauritius, the flightless dodo generated interest and awareness of humanity’s role in extinctions, paving the way for the emergence of conservation biology.”
“Extensive research on the dodo has yielded insights and ongoing debate over various aspects of its biology.”
“The majority of this knowledge was established after its disappearance in the late-17th century because, despite surviving the arrival of humans on Mauritius for several decades, only limited and often inaccurate information on its behavior and ecology were recorded when the species was still alive, and no skins were preserved.”
“With respect to its behavior, it is inferred that it nested on the ground and showed little fear of humans. The latter is a common trait in island-dwelling species with no mammalian predators, and contributed to the unfair portrayal of the dodo as ‘stupid’.”
“Notably, this depiction was never applied to the dodo’s closest relative, the Rodrigues Solitaire, which became extinct around c. 1761,” they added.
“Due to the accounts of François Leguat in 1691-93 and Julien Tafforet in 1725-26, who were both marooned on the island, the behavior of the Solitaire is significantly better attested than the dodo.”
“Their description of the Solitaire’s intense intraspecific (and potentially interspecific) aggression, may, unlike the unfortunate dodo, have spared the bird from a similarly foolish attribution.”
In the current study, the authors compared CT scans of dodo and Rodrigues Solitaire skulls with those of 36 living pigeon and dove species, examining eye sockets, nerve openings, and 3D brain reconstructions called endocasts.
The findings paint two very different pictures of these closely related, extinct island birds.
The Rodrigues Solitaire, once thought to be a scaled-up pigeon, turns out to essentially be just that — its sensory systems closely resemble those of its living relatives, aside from an oddly shaped skull.
The dodo, however, stands apart. The researchers found its optic lobes — the brain region that processes visual information — were more than three times smaller relative to brain size than in the Nicobar pigeon, its closest living relative.”
This reduction places the dodo’s visual processing capacity in territory more typical of owls than of daytime-active pigeons, hinting the bird may have been active at dawn and dusk rather than exclusively during the day.
“We suspected that dodos were better adapted to seeing in darker conditions,” said Flinders University’s Professor Vera Weisbecker.
“They had slightly larger eyes, but unusually small optic lobes, an area of the brain that processes light.”
“This could mean that its visual abilities are poorer, because small optic lobes often mean that the light reaches the brain through fewer nerves.”
“We see similarly small optic lobes in many nocturnal birds, like the elusive Australian night parrot or the New Zealand kakapo, indicating they relied little on sight and were active mainly at night.”
Restoration of the Rodrigues Solitaire, a flightless member of the pigeon order endemic to Rodrigues, Mauritius (Frederick William Frohawk, 1907)
At the same time, the dodo’s olfactory bulbs appeared enlarged compared with other pigeons, suggesting an unusually sharp sense of smell.
Its trigeminal nerve, which carries touch sensation from the face, also showed signs of enlargement near the beak, possibly linked to its oversized upper bill.
Notably, the scientists found no evidence that the dodo had a smaller brain region associated with cognition, undercutting the notion that the bird’s docility around humans reflected low intelligence.
Both birds appear to have communicated using unusually low-frequency sounds based on measurements of their inner-ear structures.
“There is no evidence that the dodo was any less intelligent than its relatives — and we know that pigeons are pretty smart,” said University of Lethbridge’s Dr. Andrew Iwaniuk.
“The dodo has the most unusual skull with a strangely domed head, but the part of its brain that determines cognition was exactly as big as what one would expect for a bird of its size.”
“These gentle animals were possibly quite social. Like many island species, they were also used to a life without predators. They may simply have had no reason to learn fearful behavior,” Citron added.
“Calling them ‘stupid’ for being naive makes it sound like they deserved to go extinct, which is so unfair.”
“We are quite confident that dodos were active at dawn, dusk or night-time, which would make it the only nocturnal pigeon in the world.”
“Perhaps this gave it an advantage over the many strictly day-active turtles that lived on Mauritius.”
“At night-time, it may have been able to escape competition for food sources with other species, such as the island’s many turtles.”
“The dodo’s skull is unlike that of any living bird, which makes it both fascinating and difficult to interpret,”
“By comparing digital reconstructions of the world’s only two complete dodo skulls, we now have a much stronger foundation for identifying which features are truly characteristic of the species and what they can tell us about how the dodo lived,” said Dr. Christy Anna Hipsley, a researcher at the Natural History Museum Denmark.
“The study provides an important new framework for understanding its behavior and ecology,” said Dr. Peter Andrew Hosner, also from the Natural History Museum Denmark.
“The dodo has become a symbol of extinction, but in many ways it remains surprisingly mysterious.”
“Every new piece of evidence helps us move beyond myths and build a more accurate picture of how this extraordinary bird lived before it disappeared.”
The team’s results were published August 5, 2026 in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
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Sara Citron et al. 2026. The sensory world of the Dodo and Solitaire revealed by endocast and skull anatomy. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 207 (4): zlag123; doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlag123
