Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ECHO PARAKEET
The vivid colours of the echo parakeet, too, were almost lost to Mauritius. In 1986,
between eight and 12 survived. And to make matters worse, it was the last of six endemic
parrot species that once inhabited the island. You know the story: captive breeding, rein-
troduction and intensive conservation management has seen the species recover to around
540, all within Black River Gorges National Park. A word of warning: the echo parakeet
closely resembles the introduced ringed parakeet which is far more common and wide-
spread throughout the island.
OTHER SPECIES
The numbers of olive white eye, a small Mauritian songbird, is down to no more than 150
pairs in the wild, with 35 birds on Île aux Aigrettes. The Mauritian fody has also found a
refuge on Île aux Aigrettes which will serve as a base for future reintroduction programs.
Over on Rodrigues, the saving of the Rodrigues warbler (from 30 in the 1970s to over
4000 today) and Rodrigues fody (six pairs in 1968, 8000 individuals today) are almost un-
parelled in the annals of wildlife conservation.
DEAD AS A DODO
Illustrations from the logbooks of the first ships to reach Mauritius show hundreds of plump flightless birds run-
ning down to the beach to investigate the newcomers. Lacking natural predators, these giant relatives of the pi-
geon were easy prey for hungry sailors, who named the bird
dodo,
meaning 'stupid'. It took just 30 years for
passing sailors and their pets and pests (dogs, monkeys, pigs and rats) to drive the dodo to extinction; the last con-
firmed sighting was in the 1660s.
Just as surprising as the speed of the dodo's demise is how little evidence remains that the bird ever existed. A
few relics made it back to Europe during the 18th century - a dried beak ended up at the University of Copenha-
gen in Denmark, while the University of Oxford in England managed to get hold of a whole head and a foot - but
until recently our knowledge of the dodo was mainly based on sketches by 17th-century seamen.
However, in 1865 local schoolteacher George Clark discovered a dodo skeleton in a marshy area on the site of
what is now the international airport. The skeleton was reassembled by scientists in Edinburgh, and has formed
the basis of all subsequent dodo reconstructions, one of which is on display in the Natural History Museum (
Click
here
) in Port Louis. There is also an accurate reconstruction of a dodo in bronze in the ebony forest on Île aux Ai-
grettes.
For the full story of the dodo's demise, read Errol Fuller's fascinating book
Dodo: From Extinction to Icon
.
For a more wide-ranging look at species evolution and extinction on islands, try David Quammen's excellent
Song of the Dodo
, which includes some lengthy passages on Mauritius.
PLANTS
Almost one-third of the 900 plant species found in Mauritius are unique to these islands.
Many of these endemic plants have fared poorly in competition with introduced plants
