What makes the dodo bird so special and would happen if they never went extinct?

The dodo is special because it was endemic to Mauritius. It chose just our tiny island to start its existence.

It was a beautiful bird too, having a beak with curves like a waterfall flowing in early spring, feathers so soft silk would have been jealous and body just the perfect size you'd wish to cuddle the dodo instead of a plushy teddy bear. I imagine it walking down the forest with such splendour, the rabbits would lift their heads up from eating the grass and blink in amazement.

They were humble creatures and that caused their ill fate. When humans invaded the then uninhabited island, dodos would roam around without any sense of danger. A lot of animals have fight/flight instinct built in, the dodos did not and because they were too trusting, they just saw humans as other comrades to share the island with. But little did they know how evil we could be...

The dodos sacrificed their lives for a greater cause, to make people realise how destructive they are. There are a lot of other species that vanished as well in Mauritius, in other neighbouring countries and other places in the world too but the dodo was the quickest one to disappear upon the contact of humans. They lived on this deserted island for millions of years and then as soon as humans landed, they were gone in just 80 years. Our one unholy touch changed the whole ecosystem for them. Being hunted for food by people, having their eggs eaten by new animal species on the island and their habitats destroyed to name a few of the consequences which led to their drastic fate. Oh the pinch in the heart I feel as I write these words...

If they didn't go extinct, I think:

• There'd be more tourists coming to Mauritius to see this unique bird
• We'd be having dodos as pets, maybe put them on a leash and take selfies for instagram
• Have a new delicacy in our restaurants, in the form of dodo burgers
• Mauritius would be less known if it was not for the dodo's death
• Mauritians would have brought the dodos to extinction themselves because what the island used to be like when dodos were alive and what it is now with all the development, they wouldn't have been able to survive those catastrophic changes

Now the greater question is, did we humans learn anything from the dodo's sacrifice? Apparently not and that's the most saddening thing about it :(