Mauritius - Fauna

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Like many reputable holiday companies we are ABTA registered, our ABTA membership number is 65310.

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Indigenous and endemic fauna Note ‘indigenous’ pertains to something found in Réunion and on the other Mascarene Islands, whilst ‘endemic’ means something found only in Réunion.

Surprisingly little has been documented of Réunion’s natural history. Just like the other Mascarenes, this island was once inhabited by an ensemble of animal oddities, most of which were birds. From detailed accounts left by the earliest settlers, we can glean that Réunion’s original inhabitants included large, flightless birds similar to the Mauritian dodo and Rodriguan solitaire. Like them, the Réunion species, also referred to as ‘solitaire’, was roughly the size of a turkey. To its detriment, it was very trusting, having evolved in a predator-free environment. Some experts are now of the opinion that the solitaire of Réunion was possibly a large, aberrant, terrestrial ibis. In any case, it was swiftly exterminated along with at least a dozen other endemic birds.

It would appear that the extinct species were dependent on the lowland rainforests, because these were felled long ago for agriculture and timber, whereas Réunion’s upland rainforests are still in magnificent shape.

Absent (as is the case also on Mauritius and Rodrigues) are indigenous, terrestrial mammals; neither are there any native amphibians. Of Réunion’s known endemic reptiles, all but two have been exterminated. The survivors are both colourful species of day gecko: Phelsuma inexpectata and P. bourbonas. Neither is particularly common.

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Mauritius - Fauna

Reunion

Mauritius - Fauna