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OC Fiction Comprehension
The Dodo

Many plants and animals went extinct due to human activity. Few are as well-known as
the dodo. What stories have you heard about the dodo? You may have heard that they
were fat, slow, and stupid. You may have heard that humans hunted them to the point of
extinction. Legends and folktales do not tell the whole story.

The only place the dodo ever lived was the island of Mauritius (pronounced like "more-
ish-us"). Mauritius is much smaller than even Tasmania. It is off the coast of
Madagascar, a much larger island east of Africa. There were no mammals on Mauritius
before humans arrived. The dodo descended from pigeons that had flown to Mauritius.
These pigeons found that this island had clean water and lots of fruit and that no
predators lived there. They could relax and live in peace. Over millions of years, they
evolved to become big and flightless, like the dodos we know about today.

Humans discovered Mauritius during the Age of Exploration. The Dutch colonized the
island in 1638. They tried to farm and settle the land. They wanted to produce exports.
They wanted the island to be more like their homes in the Netherlands. They brought
pigs, chickens, cats, and other animals, even deer. They also brought the rats that hid on
their ships.

The colonists hunted and ate many dodos. The birds had never faced predators, but
contrary to popular belief, they were not stupid. They quickly learned to run from
humans. They might have even been able to adapt and survive, if it weren't for the other
new mammals on Mauritius. The cats and rats ate the dodos' eggs and since dodos could
not fly, they were unable to hide their eggs in trees like other birds. Furthermore, the
new pigs, chickens, and livestock on the island now competed with the dodos for food.
The dodos had to go deeper and deeper into the forests of Mauritius to survive. At the
same time, the colonists were clearing the forests to make farmland. This total
ecological attack was too much for these great birds.

The last recorded encounter with a dodo occurred in 1662. A shipwrecked sailor wrote
that he and his friends had caught a dodo. He said that the bird made a great noise and
all the bird's friends ran to assist it. The men then captured them all. Truly this bird was
too noble for this world.

No one noticed the extinction of the dodo when it happened. The concept didn't even
exist at the time. The word "extinction" wouldn't even be used in that way for another
100 years. People just weren't aware of their impact on the environment, unaware of
the delicate balance of life. In 1833, a study of the dodo helped to prove the concept of
human-induced extinction.

To make things worse, the Dutch colonies failed, and the Dutch abandoned Mauritius in
1710. Sadly, the dodo was not the only animal that was wiped out, simply the most
popular. Hundreds of plants and animals from Mauritius are now gone forever due to
reckless human activity.
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1. According to the text, what is the main reason the dodos went extinct?
a. They would all come to help each other when they were being hunted.
b. Dutch colonisers hunting them.
c. The other mammals that the Dutch brought onto the island.
d. They did not know how to fly.

2. Which of the following is true regarding the island of Mauritius?

a. It is not as small as Tasmania.
b. It lies off the west coast of Africa, near Madagascar.
c. It was a good place for the dodo to live because it was close to
Madagascar.
d. It had not been discovered by humans before 1638.

3. According to the text, which of the following statements is false?

a. Mauritius had a lot of fruit trees in the past.
b. Madagascar is a country in mainland Africa.
c. Mauritius had no mammals on it for most of history before humans
colonised it.
d. Mauritius is a small island where pigeons evolved into dodos.

4. Which of the following statements is best explains why dodos lost the ability to
fly?
a. The forest was so dense in Mauritius that birds could not fly.
b. The dodo’s wings adapted to swimming instead of flying, like penguins.
c. The dodos had no predators on Mauritius.
d. Mauritius was too windy and flying there was dangerous

5. What is the definition of the word ‘ecological’ as it is used in the passage?

a. Relating to the relationship between organisms and their surroundings.
b. Relating to the sustainability of a choice or event.
c. A biological community of interacting organisms.
d. Deviously planned to be harmful.
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Answers

1. C
2. D
3. B
4. C
5. A
Explanations

1. According to the text, what is the main reason the dodos went extinct?
a. They would all come to help each other when they were being hunted.
This answer is INCORRECT as the text only talks about this in relation to the last dodo
birds that were hunted and therefore it is not the main reason the dodos went extinct.
b. Dutch colonisers hunting them.
This answer is INCORRECT as while this was part of the reason that they went extinct,
the text states that “They quickly learned to run from humans. They might have even
been able to adapt and survive, if it weren't for the other new mammals on Mauritius.”
This shows that the hunting was not the main cause of extinction.
c. The other mammals that the Dutch brought onto the island.
This answer is the MOST CORRECT as the text states that “They quickly learned to run
from humans. They might have even been able to adapt and survive, if it weren't for the
other new mammals on Mauritius.”
d. They did not know how to fly.
This answer is INCORRECT as while being able to fly might have improved their chances
of survival, it was the colonisation by the Dutch and the mammals they introduced that
caused their extinction.

2. Which of the following is true regarding the island of Mauritius?

a. It is not as small as Tasmania.
This answer is INCORRECT as the text states that “Mauritius is much smaller than even
Tasmania.”
b. It lies off the west coast of Africa, near Madagascar.
This answer is INCORRECT as the text states that Madagascar lies east of Africa and
Mauritius lies off the coast of Madagascar.
c. It was a good place for the dodo to live because it was close to
Madagascar.
This answer is INCORRECT as the text states that Mauritius was a good place for the
dodo to live because it “had clean water and lots of fruit and that no predators lived
there. They could relax and live in peace”.
d. It had not been discovered by humans before 1638.
This answer is CORRECT as the text states that “Humans discovered Mauritius during
the Age of Exploration. The Dutch colonized the island in 1638.”

3. According to the text, which of the following statements is false?

a. Mauritius had a lot of fruit trees in the past.
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This answer is INCORRECT as the statement is true as the text states that Mauritius
“had clean water and lots of fruit”.
b. Madagascar is a country in mainland Africa.
This answer is CORRECT as the statement is false. The text states that Madagascar is “a
much larger island east of Africa”.
c. Mauritius had no mammals on it for most of history before humans
colonised it.
This answer is INCORRECT as the statement is true. The text states that “There were no
mammals on Mauritius before humans arrived”.
d. Mauritius is a small island where pigeons evolved into dodos.
This answer is INCORRECT as the statement is true. The text tells us that Mauritius is a
small island and that “The only place the dodo ever lived was the island of Mauritius”. It
also tells us that “The dodo descended from pigeons that had flown to Mauritius.”

4. Which of the following statements is best explains why dodos lost the ability to
fly?
a. The forest was so dense in Mauritius that birds could not fly.
This answer is INCORRECT as there is no evidence in the text that they could not fly in
Mauritius.
b. The dodo’s wings adapted to swimming instead of flying, like penguins.
This answer is INCORRECT as there is no evidence in the text that dodo’s used their
wings for swimming.
c. The dodos had no predators on Mauritius.
This answer is CORRECT as the text states that “no predators lived there. They could
relax and live in peace” before going on to explain how they evolved to become big and
flightless. This would be the most logical reason they lost the ability to fly as they no
longer had to fly away from predators.
d. Mauritius was too windy and flying there was dangerous
This answer is INCORRECT as there is no evidence in the text that Mauritius was windy
or dangerous. In fact, the text states that the dodo’s could “relax and live in peace”
making it unlikely that there was anything very dangerous to them on the island.

5. What is the definition of the word ‘ecological’ as it is used in the passage?

a. Relating to the relationship between organisms and their
surroundings.
b. Relating to the sustainability of a choice or event.
c. A biological community of interacting organisms.
d. Deviously planned to be harmful.

The correct definition of ecological is “relating to or concerned with the relation of

living organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings”. In this case, it is
referring to the relationship between the dodo and the humans, other mammals and
resources from the bush.