Amongst the many places one could go to learn about environmental conservation Mauritius is perhaps the ultimate destination. Not only was it once home to a flightless bird whose disappearance has sparked people’s imagination all over the world and become an emblem for the power and responsibility that we human beings carry in determining other species’ fate. It is also a place where extinction and conservation continue to be two very concrete possibilities.

Here is a little story for you:
In the South East of Mauritius there is a small islet named Ilot Chat (Island of the cat). It is no bigger than the average American porch, yet it was the home of two rather threatened reptile species: the lesser night gecko and the Durrell’s night gecko. To tell the truth neither of the two species had gotten here on their own account. Their residency was the result of an experiment of some well intentioned ecologists who wanted to see whether the two species could co-exist before undertaking a larger scale restoration project. All had gone well for several months and the initial introduced geckos had been able to reproduce up to the 4th generation until one day the scientists arrived to the islet to find that there was not a single gecko in sight. Instead, on the top of the rock a round bellied rat beamed at them with content. This single rat had managed to wipe out the entire population of the islets two species of geckos.

Luckily these populations had been part of an experiment and were not the last ones of their kind. Still, the story illustrates how damaging and ruthless the introduction of invasive species can be.

Reptiles in Mauritius were not always threatened. There was once a time where they were amongst the most numerous inhabitants of the island. They were so successful that they constituted the building blocks of a unique world: an entire ecosystem based on reptiles! Through a process which in ecology is referred to as adaptive radiation they had come to occupy all different roles of “society” from predators to prey, from pollinators and seed dispersers to giant herbivores. This is because, with the exception of fruit eating bats, there were no mammals in Mauritius. Then, with the arrival of man in the 15th Century everything changed.

The men who first set foot on the island quickly brought about both the accidental and deliberate introduction of invasive species such as rats, monkeys, deer and pigs. This combined with the more recent threat of habitat destruction has meant that today few of the reptiles that constituted this unique ecosystem survive on mainland Mauritius. Several went extinct; others have disappeared from the mainland but survived on some smaller islands and islets of the coast of Mauritius.

The Bay of Mahebourg in the South East of Mauritius still hosts 4 endemic species of reptiles. One of these is the Ilot Vacoas Bojer’s skink. This reptile is thought to be a subspecies found only on Ilot Vacoas, an islet 1 Ha in size! As well as the ever looming threat of the introduction of invasives (including, rats, shrews and snakes) some of the main threats to the reptiles found in the Bay appears to be caused by recreational activities of unwary tourist visiting the islets. It may come as a surprise that besides the dropping of litter which can constitute a deathly trap to the reptile, the lighting of barbecue fires can also have a significant detrimental impact. This is not only because of the risk of fire to the vegetation but also because of the heating of the very rocks used by the reptiles for shelter and nesting. The risk becomes apparent when one considers that it is thought that Bojer’s skinks only lay a few eggs a year and that the heating of a rock can literally fry dozens of eggs which have been laid in its crevices.

Luckily for the reptiles the extinction of the Dodo on Mauritius has brought this island to the attention of many conservationists. Amongst them are the members of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, the oldest conservation organisation of the island. The Foundation has saved several species from the brink of extinction including the Mauritian Kestrel which in the 1980es was one of the rarest birds in the world with only a couple of breeding pairs left. Today the Foundation has teamed up with the National Parks and Conservation Services (NP&CS) to take on the protection of the endemic reptiles of the Islets in the Bay of Mahebourg. As well as a substantial restoration programme run as part of a Darwin Initiative the Foundation will be running a Rare pride Campaign to try and mitigate the threats caused to the reptiles by recreational activities. The flagship species will be a charismatic ornate day gecko belonging to the Phelsuma family,  a group that is incidentally also a favourite prey of the Mauritius Kestrel. Having had the pleasure to visit Mauritius and work with many of the MWF staff, including the charismatic Campaign Manager Cathleen Cybele, I am looking forward to this campaign’s progress.