The dodo, whose untimely demise has become synonymous with extinction, is only the best known of the many species that have been finally wiped off the face of the Earth in Mauritius.
Since colonizing man began to devastate this 728-square-mile island in the Indian Ocean, the original cloak of native forest has been reduced to a few square miles, inside a larger area of degraded woodland.
Some endemic birds and plants followed the dodo into oblivion as recently as the mid-1970s after a clearance of upland forest financed by the World Bank.
A report by Anthony Cheke, a British naturalist, in the magazine "Oryx" shows the following list of extinct endemic species: 11 out of 21 birds; 2 out of 3 mammals (fruit bats) and 8 out of 12 reptiles.
The figures are matched on the two adjoining islands, Reunion and Rodrigues, similarly celebrated for their evolutionary isolation and, like Mauritius, containing many creatures of Asian origin, although Africa and Madagascar are closer.
The casualties include rails, ducks, owls, pigeons, parrots and giant tortoise. Many endemic plants are now reduced to one, in the case of a palm tree, or a few examples. Seven of the 10 endemic birds on Mauritius are in the Red Data Book of Endangered Species.
In the past 10 years there has been considerable progress to develop a conservation strategy for Mauritius. Some foreign sponsored programmes are already in operation, but tourism and economic pressures have made matters worse on parts of the island, half of which is now under sugar cane. The situation remains precarious for many species.
The rarest endemic Mauritian bird is the echo parakeet, down to four in the early 1980s. The bird is now being studied by Dutch scientist Ed de Graaf, who saw eight birds in last year. The other bird badly affected by the loss of habitat is the Mauritius fody, now so rare that there may not be enough to trap for a captive breeding programme.
However the prospect is brighter for the Mauritius kestrel, described as the rarest bird in the world in the early 1970s when there was a population of six. Numbers are increasing and resident British scientist, Carl Jones, raised 14 young in the 1985-86 season. The wild population has reached between 19 and 25.
If the islands' endemic animals and plants are to be saved, the remaining forest must be sustained. Anthony Cheke is trying to promote a long-term study of the slowly dying forests, their regeneration inhibited by illegal cutting and the impact from introduced animals.
