I departed my home in Helsinki to start a field research expedition in the southeastern rainforest of Madagascar. As my flight from Istanbul to Mauritius got delayed, I lost my connection to Antananarivo, and the airline offered me three nights of accomodation covered on the island, a great opportunity to get to know Mauritius and its wildlife, despite the delay of my expedition.
I check in my hotel in Port Louis waterfront already at night and fall asleep instantly. Therefore, I get to wake up very early the next morning, when the light is still fade. While I message my family I look out the window, where the pier of the city meets the blue Indian Ocean. All of a sudden, a massive Mauritian flying fox (Pteropus niger) flies past my view over the buildings. Incredible, I didn’t expect this! I get ready in five minutes and run downstairs to the garden of the pier. More flying foxes fly in all directions over the city, unbelievable. I must say, on my last day I found out the Jardin de la Compagne, very close to the waterfront, there is a colony of these megachiropterans.
I’m familiar with many of the birds I find in Port-Louis, as many are introduced to both Mauritius and Réunion, where I saw them in 2021. Red fody (Foudia madagascariensis) from Madagascar, common myna (Acridotheres tristis) and red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) from India, zebra dove (Geopelia striata) from southeast Asia, and house sparrow (Passer domesticus) and feral pigeon (Columba livia domestica) from Eurasia eat crumbs in the floor and the flower pots of the garden. Among the introduced species, I also detect my first-ever spotted dove (Streptopelia chinensis), scaly-breasted munia (Lonchura punctulata), and later house crow (Corvus splendens), yellow-fronted canary (Crithagra mozambica), and village weavers (Ploceus cucullatus).
Over the waterfront, before anyone walks around, a solitary whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) flies across, as so does a white-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus), an omnipresent species in Réunion although the only pelagic bird of my stay in the island. On the rocks of the shore, a striated heron (Butorides striata) catches some fish. In the mangroves of Terre Rouge within the city, I find my first-ever Terek sandpipers (Xenus cinereus) and greater sand-plovers (Anarhynchus leschenaultii) among black-bellied plovers (Pluvialis squatarola).
As soon as I found out the date of my final flight to Madagascar, I planned to find island endemics. On my first excursions, I only managed to spot some Mauritius gray white-eyes (Zosterops mauritianus), one on Terre Rouge in Port-Louis where they are very scarce, and some birds in the coast of Flic-en-Flac, where I also found native Mascarene martins (Phedina borbonica) and an endemic blue-tailed day gecko (Phelsuma cepediana). As I had short time left on the island and no rental vehicle, I decided to go to Île-aux-Aigrettes, an international example of conservation of birds.
From Port-Louis, I hop on a bus to the south end of the island, Mahébourg (for less than MUR 100). Leaving past 06.45, I reach Mahébourg before 09.00, and catch a shuttle bus through the Blue Bay to the embarkation spot in Pointe Jérome. My plan today is to reach Île aux Aigrettes by 09.30, so that I can join a guided tour and be back in Port Louis just in time for late lunch. The island is managed by Mauritius Conservation Foundation, and can be only visited through a guided tour of around 1.30 h including the boat ride (22 € in my case, booking last minute the night before and confirming only in site — although I believe tickets could be bought directly at the office).
Île-aux-Aigrettes (eBird spot here) represents the last remains of Mauritius coastal dry forest, a once widespread vegetation type that shrunk importantly due to the extinction of many of the wildlife implied. Giant turtles used to act as stabilizers of vegetation growth and many plants show impressive adaptations to turtle herbivory, but are now long extinct.
Mauritius Conservation Fund has now populated the island with the most closely related extant species, the Aldabra giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys giganteus), which provide an equivalent ecosystemic service and help reaching a sustainable development of the native vegetation.
With its restored vegetation, the island has been introduced with many endemic species. The presence of many plant species is very singular, such as endemic ebony (Diospyros egrettarum), screwpine (Pandanus vandermeeschii), orchid (Oenioella polystachys), shared with Madagascar, or a plant (Coptosperma borbonicum) whose seedlings show a pattern against turtle herbivory, also found in Réunion. Some other plants shared with the remote, closed-to-visitors Round Island can be found here, including the bottle palm (Hyophorbe lageunicaulis).
Many of these plants are present in the nursery of the island, which is full of the beautiful Mauritius ornate day gecko (Phelsuma ornata), my personal favourite day gecko and an endemic common in this island. Another day gecko, the cryptic Round Island day gecko (Phelsuma guentheri), seems to be very hard to find, despite its big size.
We also don’t see any of the highly localized Bojer’s skink (Gongylomorphus bojerii) and Round Island ground skinks (Leiolopisma telfairii) of the island, although we find several terrestrial hermit crabs (Coenobita purpurea).
Île-aux-Aigrettes is an easy place for birdwatchers to contact some of the endemic birds of Mauritius. The most mythical, the pink pigeon (Nesoenas mayeri), lives here and in some areas of the mainland now in growing numbers after only ten individuals remained in 1991! This story of conservation success is used as an example of inspiration to preserve habitats and species worldwide, and looking at these particular birds closeby as they fly or feed surely reminds oneself of these stories.
We get to see two pink pigeons in a designated feeding area, and a third one flies out of the shrubbery and sits in the open as we admired the landscape from a viewpoint, in all cases providing good photographic opportunities.
The most common endemic bird on the island is the Mauritius fody (Foudia rubra). A couple greets us even from the boat, and many more are seen throughout the tour in different points of the island. However, note that the introduced red fody is also common here, when identifying birds.
Also, red-whiskered bulbuls and gray francolins (Ortygornis pondicerianus) are common on the island. The last endemic bird here, the Mauritius olive white-eye (Zosterops chloronothos), unfortunately eludes me during my visit. The guide and some biologists on the island inform me that they live in small numbers in the island compared to the other birds, and that they are not always seen.
Back to the boat, the water is crystal clear, and I get to see different fish and corals from the surface. Clusters of coral scattered in the white sand under our catamaran are home to numerous white damselfish (Dascyllus abdudafur), Indian redfin butterflyfish (Chaetodon trifasciatus), and lagoon triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus), among many other colorful fish and corals.
Mauritius was not among my plans. There is much more to see in this island: the National Parks preserving vegetation in the mainland are home to numerous endangered endemics, including the singular Echo parakeet (Psittacula echo) – the last extant Mascarene parrot – and Mauritius kestrel (Falco punctatus), or the Mauritius bulbul (Hypsipetes mauritianus) and the Mauritius cuckooshrike (Lalage typica). Although this was a nice taste of the island and I’m happy I got to visit different habitats, if I’m ever back I will try not to miss these forests and these birds, as well as a glimpse to the underwater.