24. Where's Dodo?

With the Hoarder's Hunt mystery solved, Skipper Jimi has devoted himself to a new mystery: the search for the mysterious Dodo bird.

A few months ago, a dodo was briefly spotted on the docks at Ancient Spire Outpost, but it quickly disappeared. Some people believe it was a myth, but one clever pirate managed to capture this grainy image of the creature with a camera obscura:

Although this dodo's visit to Ancient Spire Outpost was brief, he will never be forgotten! Jimi has taken it upon himself to search the Sea of Thieves for this creature!

The Sea of Thieves takes place in the Caribbean, but the dodo bird was actually from the island that today we call Mauritius, near Madagascar.

In the early 1500s, Portuguese sailors arrived on Mauritius, which was then uninhabited by humans. Captain Domingo Fernandez Pereira named it “Ilha Do Cerne" (Island of the Swan). Perhaps "swan" referred to the Dodo Bird!

This famous portrait depicts what may have been the very first meeting of seafarer and dodo!

Unfortunately, not long after that first encounter between sailor and dodo, the accursed Grand Maritime Union (GMU) ruined the dodo's habitat. Although many beyond the Shroud believe the dodo bird went extinct, actually (much like our pirates) the birds fled to the Sea of Thieves.

Fleeing GMU activities in Mauritius, the Dodo stowed away on friendly pirate ships. A few of them made their way to the Sea of Thieves.

In Tales from the Sea of Thieves, Flameheart Jr. (now known as the Servant of Flame) writes about seeing (and perhaps eating!) a dodo on the Sea of Thieves: Most curious of all was a very large, slow-moving and flightless bird that gorged on berries and tiny crabs. I believe we shall be dining on him tonight.

Until the recent sighting on Ancient Spire, the dodo had not been seen on the Sea of Thieves for many years. But it is certainly not new to our shores. Early pirates made sketches of the bird, as seen in the concept art above. Famous picaroons like Flameheart Jr. himself have also written about their encounters with dodos on the Sea of Thieves!

Skipper Jimi knows that the dodo is out there, and he is searching for it every day. You can learn more about his quest for the dodo on bit.ly/sotdodo, a special page on this blog devoted to this adventure.

Follow @SkipperJimi on Twitter if you would like to follow along on his search for the dodo. As he travels around the Sea of Thieves, he is posting photos of each island that he explores in search of the dodo. There may be a dodo hidden in each and every one of these pictures... If you enjoy the Where's Waldo* books, you might enjoy these Where's Dodo tweets!

(Originally Where's Wally, but the North American version's name kind of rhymed with Dodo... 😅)