One of the most infamous cautionary tales of humanity's follies, the reasons behind the extinction of the dodo are even more depressing than you may realize.

The birds’ girth — a dodo could easily weigh 50 pounds ... since the birds lacked natural predators — and having their eggs and habitat destroyed by rats and pigs the Europeans brought ...

They thrived until humans arrived at their habitat in the late 1500s. Before humans interfered, they were able to maintain a steady population even though a dodo bird laid only one egg per year.

The dodo was a flightless bird that lived on the island nation of ... Most of the documented extinctions occurred on islands. Habitat loss can have huge effects due to isolation.

Scientists at a Dallas, Texas-based company recently announced that they would be attempting to bring the dodo bird, which became ... Others argue that the original habitats of extinct animals ...