Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
9
The support of conservation programs
through the biomedical usage of
long-tailed macaques in Mauritius
Nada Padayatchy
Introduction
Mauritius is a 1,865 m
2
oceanic island found within the Mascarene archipelago
in the Indian Ocean some 900 km east of Madagascar around latitude 20
o
15' S
and longitude 57
o
30'E with the highest point of the island being at 828 m
above sea level (Saddul,
1995
). (
Figure 9.1
).
Although found on Arab mariner charts as early as 1300 AD and visited since
then by sailors of various origins, such as the Portuguese, it was only colonized
by the Dutch in 1638 AD (Cheke and Hume,
2008
). After the Dutch, the island
was colonized by the French followed by the British before attaining inde-
pendence in 1968. Mauritius has had a Republic status since 1992 and a popu-
lation of 1.26M (CSO,
2007
), making it the eighteenth most densely populated
country in the world. The official language is English, but the local dialect, the
Mauritian Creole, is closer to French, making the latter a more used language
than English. The Mauritian population is ethnically very diverse with people
of Indian origin (68 percent), descended mostly from the indentured laborers
from India composed of people from different religious backgrounds - Hindus,
Muslims, Tamils, Telegus, Marathis, etc. The next largest ethnic group is com-
posed of Creoles (27 percent) - people descended mostly from slaves brought
over from Madagascar and Africa. People of Chinese origin, mostly descended
from Chinese immigrants from Guangzhou compose 3 percent of the popu-
lation and the remaining 2 percent are made of people of European descent
(mostly from France) and some other minorities. Traditionally, the economy of
Mauritius was based mostly on sugarcane, but this has now diversified to other
sectors such as tourism, export, services, etc.
