The wildlife of Mauritius consists 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. At the 16th U.S.-Africa Business Summit, held May 6–9, 2024, Mauritius was held up as a model for African ecosystem conservation at a presentation by the Saint Brandon Conservation Trust in Dallas, Texas, at the international Corporate Council on Africa meetings that included six heads of state and government, 80 U.S. government officials, 16 African delegations and over 1,000 U.S. & African CEOs, investors and entrepreneurs.
Fauna
Mammals
Prehistorically, due to its isolated Indian Ocean location to the east of Madagascar, Mauritius had no endemic terrestrial mammals. The only mammals that could find their way to the island were bats and marine mammals. The vast majority of mammalian species on the island have been introduced, either inadvertently or intentionally, by humans, such as the crab-eating macaque, rats, mice, Asian house shrew, small Indian mongoose, tailless tenrec, Javan rusa deer, wild boar, Indian hares as well feral dogs and cats and farm livestock, such as domestic ruminants and goats. These introduced mammals have had a varied impact on the island's pristine fauna. Given that they were free from natural predators, they rapidly grew to large numbers and were soon preying on and competing with the local fauna.
Bats There were once three native species of fruit bats on the island, two of which were endemic to Mauritius. Only the Mauritian flying fox remains on the island. The Rodrigues flying fox is now only found on the nearby island of Rodrigues, and the small Mauritian flying fox has gone extinct due to human related factors. Two insectivorous microbats are also present, the Mauritian tomb bat (Taphozous mauritianus) and the Natal free-tailed bat (Mormopterus acetabulosus). On 7 November 2015, the government introduced a law authorising the culling of around 18,000 Mauritian fruit bats, despite protests, and despite the species' formal, legal protection and being ranked as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to the IUCN, blaming the fruit bats for the "high" levels of damage caused to commercial fruit plantations is not substantiated, based on observations and research results. By July 2018, the IUCN again ranked the fruit bat, only this time as an endangered species, following the previous years' (2015–2017) government-sanctioned killings. Despite this elevated concern status, and still being afforded legal protection, October 2018 saw a reinstatement of the cull; this most recent cull called for all but 20% of the fruit bat population to be killed, leaving approximately 13,000 (of the estimated 65,000) fruit bats.
Birds
Over 100 bird species have been recorded in Mauritius. There are seven or eight surviving endemic species on the main island depending on taxonomy. The Mauritius grey white-eye is the most common of these, being widespread across the island including in man-made habitats. The others are less common and are mainly restricted to the Black River Gorges National Park in the south-west of the island. The Mauritius kestrel, Mauritius parakeet and pink pigeon all came close to extinction but are now increasing due to intensive conservation efforts. Rodrigues has two further endemic species, the Rodrigues warbler and Rodrigues fody. Many small islands are named after birds, although some have seen their seabird colonies reduced or driven extinct by threats such as logging, poachers, or introduced species. The only two places you can find the red-footed booby in Mauritius are Rodrigues and St Brandon.
St Brandon islands are home to vast numbers of seabirds (Feare, 1984; Gardiner, 1907; Strauss in litt., 9.7.84). Staub and Gueho (1968) found a total of 26 species including the red-footed booby. Blue-faced boobies (Sula dactylatra) are found on Serpent Island and Ile du Nord. Large populations of sooty terns (Sterna fuscata) and white terns (Gygis alba) occur on Albatros, Ile Raphael and Siren islands. In 2010, a survey of seabirds of St Brandon was undertaken. "We estimated that 1 084 191 seabirds comprising seven breeding species and excluding non-breeders were present at the archipelago. ... Analyses of 30 different islets that make up the atoll showed that the seabird species mostly partitioned their use of islets based on islet size, with four species preferring larger islets and two species preferring smaller islets."
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