Mauritian wildlife rediscovered
By Claudia Baider
Sit and relax. Close your eyes. What comes to mind if I say wildlife? Most people first see images of lions, tigers, elephants, big terrestrial animals. A few would think of sharks or whales. Again, big animals. Very few would think of snakes or rats — animals that we fear. Fewer still will imagine trees, corals or small insects. And nearly no one will think of bacteria. Perhaps some would imagine a virus — probably the coronavirus just because it is in the news daily for the last months.
If you are asked to think about your own country’s wildlife, it might start to become more difficult to name any native animals or plants. For example, in the small island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, many might come with an animal represented in the coat of arms of the country: the dodo. It is almost a mythical animal — lots have been written about it, little is truly known. Your imagination would create your own representation of a dodo based on the preconceived idea that it was a fat and stupid bird. Though this image is mostly wrong, the power of existing concepts is so powerful that they will persist in people’s imaginary.
Mauritius has a large proportion of species that occur nowhere else in the world. But many now are known from only a few individuals because most of the original vegetation has been destroyed. And also because of other species introduced in the country by humans, which ended up overrunning and destroying the native wildlife. Some of the alien species that are very problematic are the macaques, rats, wild cats, or fruit trees such as strawberry guava (goyave de Chine) or ornamentals like Ravenala.
Next time you are asked about wildlife, it would awesome if you could imagine some of Mauritius’s forgotten or little known jewels. Here are just a few example:
This ‘bouquet’ above are the flowers of an endemic tree commonly known as bois de pomme but this species is known today from only a handful of adult plants that grow in the region of Trois Mamelles, including a tree found only a few months ago. This species is so rare that it was only discovered less than 30 years ago.
This exquisite plant above, Nesocodon mauritianus, is found at a few very inaccessible cliffs of Mauritius. Amazingly, it has bell-shaped purple-bluish flowers and produces red nectar to attract its pollinators — colourful day geckos.
Mauritius has a handful of different species of day geckos. Besides being the ultimate beauty, they play very important roles as pollinators of native plants, and they can also disperse seeds.
As for this delicate orchid below, it has a faint smell and is the newest addition to the flora of the island. The flower is almost larger than the whole plant.
Let’s learn about our island wildlife. And celebrate it every day!
