Wildlife of Mauritius

The wildlife of Mauritius is composed of its flora and fauna. Mauritius is located in the Indian Ocean to the east of Madagascar. Due to its isolation, it has a relatively low diversity of wildlife; however, a high proportion of these are endemic species occurring nowhere else in the world. Many of these are now threatened with extinction because of human activities including habitat destruction and the introduction of non-native species. Some have already become extinct, most famously the dodo which disappeared in the 17th century.

Fauna

Crab-eating macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Mammals

Main article: List of mammals in Mauritius

The native mammalian fauna of Mauritius is limited to bats and marine mammals. The Mauritius flying fox and Rodrigues flying fox are large fruit bats endemic to the islands.

A number of mammals have been introduced including rats, mice, tenrecs, mongooses, rusa deer and crab-eating macaques.

Birds

Main article: List of birds of Mauritius

Pink pigeon (Columba mayeri)

Over 100 species of bird have been recorded in Mauritius. There are seven or eight surviving endemic species on the main island depending on taxonomy. The Mauritius grey white-eye is the commonest of these, being widespread across the island including in man-made habitats. The others are less common and are mainly restricted to the Black River Gorges National Park in the south-west of the island. The Mauritius kestrel, Mauritius parakeet and pink pigeon all came close to extinction but are now increasing thanks to intensive conservation efforts.

Rodrigues Island has two further endemic species, the Rodrigues warbler and Rodrigues fody. Seabird colonies are present on many of the smaller islands of the country.

A wide variety of birds have been introduced into Mauritius. These include some of the most common and conspicuous birds of the islands including the common myna, Madagascar fody, red-whiskered bulbul and zebra dove. The common myna is becoming a pest due to its well documented habit of displacing smaller bird species from their habitat and also destroying the smaller bird species young. The mynas were introduced for commercial reasons, primarily to help control the locusts which eat the sugar cane leafage, instead, they prey on small indigenous lizards which are easier to catch due to their basking habits which is required for their metabolism, the lizards have become the mynas primary source of food, but due to the myna's preying on these lizards an imbalance is being created with insects which the lizard would prey on which the common myna doesn't eat due to its inability to crawl under rocks and forage in the dense grass, flora, and fauna.

Reptiles

A number of endemic reptiles are found in Mauritius, particularly on Round Island. These include day geckos (Phelsuma), night geckos (Nactus), skinks and the keel-scaled boa. Giant tortoises formerly occurred but are now extinct.

Myripristis pralinia off Trou aux Biches

Marine life

Coral reefs are found around most of the Mauritian coastline, most of the coral life on the ring reef and within the lagoons has been destroyed due to the practice of dynamite fishing which was allowed up to the seventies, the exception is areas which are inaccessible to indigenous fishermen due to excessively rough seas. . The fish life in the lagoons and seas around most of the villages and towns is virtually non existent due to overfishing by the locals who utilise any form of device to catch any marine protein, all fish species and crustaceans are landed irrespective of size and, in the case of lobsters, when the female lobsters have berries. The lobster population has been decimated to the extent that lobsters are now imported from Madagascar for the tourist (hotel) industry and local consumptiom. Spear Guns are illegal in Mauritius however the local fishermen use them extensively with which to hunt fish, there is a huge anomaly between the laws which exist to preserve and protect fish and the enforcement of these laws, The coast guard is under tight budgetary constraints and does very little patrolling, they are also reluctant to enforce existing laws with creole fishermen as they are deemed un-prosecutable due to their indigenous status. The coast guard is a department in name only, they do excel at inspecting the beaches on sunny days and if a station inspection is due then they'll endeavour to check the dive boats for correct documentation.

The estuaries are becoming polluted due to garbage which is dumped into the ravines by the Ministry Of Environment, inland ravines are utilised extensively as refuse dumps, this creates a huge problem with regards to toxic water flow into the various estuaries, this also has an adverse effect on various marine life.

At Flic en Flac, on the west coast, there is a resident pod of dolphins which has the habit of resting in a cove 2 km north of Flic en Flac but are continuously harassed and exploited by commercial speed boat operators, the speed boats will gather as close to the dolphins as they can, sometimes directly over the moving pod of dolphins, whereupon they then shadow the dolphins and allow tourists to swim with the dolphins, the tourists in the water do their best to try and touch the dolphins, the end result is that the dolphins now move on instead of resting in this cove. The maximum number of boats that I counted harassing/stressing the dolphins during my three month observation period was 18 boats. There is no legislation to prevent the dolphins from being harassed/stressed by boats and the swimmers who get into the water to "swim with the dolphins". "Swimming with the dolphins" is advertised at most of the hotels and the speed boat operators pro-actively canvass for clients for this "tourist attraction".

The sugar estates dump their effluent into their bordering rivers, the resultant water flow is dark brown/black in colour with a strong foul stench, this effluent flows into estuaries, lagoons, and is then flushed by tides into the open sea. Black river on the west coast is so named because of the black coloured water which is the result of effluent dumped into it by the sugar estate. The river which flows through the Medine sugar estate (Flic en Flac) doesn't end in a estuary when it reaches the sea, it cascades from a water fall hence dispersing and diluting the blackness of its colour when it reaches the sea, ironically this " black water fall" is a tourist attraction for the speed boat operators. The sea life around these two areas is sparse.

Molluscs

Main articles: List of non-marine molluscs of Mauritius and List of marine molluscs of Mauritius

Flora

Lantana camara

About 670 native species of flowering plant are found in Mauritius and nearly half of these are endemic. Rainforest formerly covered most of the island with palm savannah in drier regions and areas of heathland in the mountains. Most of this natural vegetation has been destroyed and what remains is threatened by the spread of introduced plants.

The national flower of Mauritius is Trochetia boutoniana or "boucle d'oreille" which is now restricted to a single mountain. Native trees include the Mauritius ebony (Diospyros tesselaria), takamaka (Calophyllum tacamahaca) and various palms. Introduced plants that have become invasive include "Chinese" (actually Brazilian) guava (Psidium littorale) and Lantana camara. Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea glabra) and frangipani (Plumeria alba) are among the most commonly planted ornamental species.

Conservation

Black River Gorges National Park

Conservation work in Mauritius is carried out by the National Parks and Conservation Service (NPCS) and by non-governmental organizations such as the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT).

The Black River Gorges National Park covers 65.74 km² of land and another 45 km² is protected by nature reserves such as Round Island and Île aux Aigrettes.

Efforts to preserve native flora and fauna have included captive breeding, habitat restoration and the eradication of introduced species.

References

• Ellis, Royston; Richards, Alexandra & Schuurman, Derek (2002) Mauritius, Rodrigues, Réunion: the Bradt Travel Guide, 5th edition, Bradt Travel Guides Ltd, UK.
• Mauritian Wildlife Foundation Accessed 13/11/07.
• Sinclair, Ian & Langrand, Olivier (1998) Birds of the Indian Ocean Islands, Struik, Cape Town.