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.

Due to its isolated geographic location, remote from large land masses, Mauritius has no terrestrial mammals. The only mammals that made their way to the island are bats and marine mammals.

Of the 2 fruit bats, only one remains - the black-spined Flying fox. Two insectivorous microbats also remain.

A number of mammals have been introduced either accidentally or intentionally, including rats, mice, tenrecs, mongooses, rusa deer and crab-eating macaques as well as domestic ruminants and pigs.

These introduced mammals have had a varied impact on the island's pristine fauna. Given that they were free from natural predators, they very rapidly grew to large numbers and were soon preying on and competing with the local fauna.

The government began shooting 18,000 Mauritius fruit bats (Pteropus niger) on 7 November 2015, despite protests and even though the species is protected and listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the high level of damage to commercial fruit that it is widely claimed to be caused by the fruit bats is not supported by the results of the research.

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