Mauritius Rodrigues Island turtles

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There are on this island such a multitude of those tortoises in groups of two or three thousand that you can make more than one hundred strides [] on their shells without your feet treading the ground. Francois Leguat (1693): Over the next century (1732-1771) the French East India Company, which had control over Rodrigues, removed not less than 280000 tortoises. The last record of a wild Rodrigues Island tortoise was noted by Philibert Maragon in 1794, and the last captive specimen died in Mauritius in 1829. Such was the rapid decline to extinction of two sympatric, endemic species of Indian Ocean tortoises: Cylindraspis vosmeari and Cylindrapis peltastes. In response to this sad story of loss to both science and humanity, Owen Griffiths, a trained zoologist and committed environmentalist, has initiated an ambitious project aiming at giving back to Rodrigues its past natural heritage the reintroduction of giant tortoises into a reforested nature reserve on the island. In February 2005, the new autonomous local government of Rodrigues approved the lease of initial18 hectares for the establishment of the Francois Leguat Tortoise Reserve on the limestone plains of the Islands southwest. Subsequently, 80000 endemic and native Rodrigues plants (representing 34 species) have been re-established on the site, and 35000 more will be planted in 2007, under the supervision of the Rodrigues branch of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. The objective is to reestablish the original ...

Publicerad av reptinet 2011-06-16 21:14:56

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Mauritius Rodrigues Island turtles

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