Lost Land of the Dodo: An Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion & RodriguesUninhabited by humans, the Mascarene Islands of the Indian Ocean were once home to an extraordinary range of birds and reptiles: giant tortoises, parrots, skinks, geckos, burrowing boas, flightless rails and herons, and, most famously, dodos. But the discovery of the three isolated islands in the 1500s, and their colonization in the 1600s, led to dramatic ecological changes. The dodo became extinct on its home island of Mauritius within several decades, and over the next 150 years most native vertebrates suffered the same fate. This fascinating book provides the first full ecological history of the Mascarene Islands as well as the specific story of each extinct vertebrate, accompanied by Julian Hume’s superb color illustrations.
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Contents
02_chapters16 copy | 13 |
03_chapters78_116202 copy | 116 |
04_chapters911_203275 copy | 203 |
05_Notes_276367 copy | 276 |
06_Appendix_368404 copy | 368 |
07_Biblio_405452 copy | 405 |
| 453 | |
Other editions - View all
Lost Land of the Dodo: An Ecological History of Mauritius, Réunion & Rodrigues Anthony S. Cheke,Julian Hume No preview available - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
Aigrettes Aldabra animals appears areas Barnwell bats birds bones Booby breeding Bulbul Carl Jones cats caves century Chapter Cheke collected colony comm conservation Cossigny cyclone Day-gecko deer Dodo Dutch Echo Parakeet ecological eggs endemic exotic extinct fauna feral Flat Island flightless Flying-fox Fody geckos genus goats Grey Gunner’s Quoin habitat herons Ile aux Aigrettes Indian Ocean introduced invasive islets l’Ile land latans Leguat lizards Lougnon Madagascar mainland Malagasy Mascarene Maurice Mauritian Mauritius and Rodrigues Mauritius Fody Mauritius Kestrel mentioned Merles museum mynas native forest nest Newton North-Coombes 1971 noted numbers palms Paris parrots pers Petrel Phelsuma Pingré Pink Pigeon plants population Port Louis predators probably Probst rats recent recorded Red-tailed Tropicbirds reported reptiles Réunion Round Island Saint-Denis seabirds seen Seychelles Shearwaters ships Skink snakes Solitaire species specimens Staub Strahm subfossil survived Tafforet tion tortoises trees Tropicbirds Turtle upland vegetation Vinson Wedge-tailed Shearwaters White-eye wildlife