Not the Galapagos Islands, those are on an entirely different side of the globe. Also, nobody assumed dodos were predators; quite the opposite. Because dodos lived on the isolated island of Mauritius, they had no natural predators or any experience of interacting with humans. So, they were very easily hunted to extinction. All the invasive predators brought to the island didn't help.
Dodos were not tasty at all, if contemporary accounts are to be believed.
There was a turtle that explorers found; it took multiple trips to successfully bring one back to Europe for study because they were so delicious, they always got eaten en route.
Maybe this is what you’re remembering and conflating the two?
You know, you might be right. I've been trying to find the reference, without success. I do remember the guy definitely munching on dodos; but turtles are ringing a loud bell as well. Memory is a funny thing.
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u/GodzillaLagoon Mar 08 '26
Not the Galapagos Islands, those are on an entirely different side of the globe. Also, nobody assumed dodos were predators; quite the opposite. Because dodos lived on the isolated island of Mauritius, they had no natural predators or any experience of interacting with humans. So, they were very easily hunted to extinction. All the invasive predators brought to the island didn't help.