Around 10,000 are bred and exported from Mauritius to the US, UK and Japan. I'm so glad I have this blog and other web outlets to highlight these kinds of stories. If not for these outlets, I would have to sit in a slow simmer as none of my "friends" can handle or understand the outrage. I think they just want to live in happy denial. If they think about what's going on and their role in it, then they might actually have to care. MORE

The beauty of the Pink Pigeon of Mauritius is matched only by its rarity. Ah rose, the color of swanky gardens and rampant optimism. Rose by any other name also appears prominently in the plumage of some very perky birds. Rosy , a proper adjectival form of the word, describes a selection of finches from the genus Leucosticte. MORE

With their strong flight and capability to disperse, parrots have managed to colonize almost every major island group from Tahiti to Mauritius to Dominica. Parrots captivate me more than any other bird family. I am a self-proclaimed psittacophile. For one, they are remarkably diverse with a little over 380 species spread over every continent except Europe (only introduced) and Antarctica. MORE

Feature photo of Tom Cade with Mauritius Kestrel by Carl Jones used by permission of The Peregrine Fund. Author Sherrida Woodley thinks deeply about dearly departed birds. such as California Condors and Passenger Pigeons. She also has an abiding interest in important figures in natural history. She’s already written about Rachel Carson: Secret Birder. MORE

Gerald Durrell relates one story in trying to save the endemic herpetofauna of Round Island in Mauritius. In responding to Suzie’s post defending wildlife rehabilitation I began to think again about the areas in which animal rights and animal welfare overlap with the field of conservation, and the ways in which they don’t. It’s a subject I’ve thought a lot about over the years, pretty much since I first started studying biology at undergraduate level. MORE

Pink pigeon near Le Pétrin, Mauritius by Michael Hanselmann, used under Creative Commons license. A bit of background: Pink Pigeons are medium-sized, pink/gray/ brown birds found on the island of Mauritius, Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. Mauritius may sound familiar, it was also the home of one of our most famous extinct birds—the Dodo. It was the Pink Pigeons (Nesoenas mayeri) that got me thinking. MORE

However, this does not apply to the Mauritius Bulbul , which is classified as vulnerable. The reception of bulbuls in the ornithological world is decidedly mixed. MORE

The tortoise- and drug-filled bags had come in on 1 June on an Air Mauritius flight and were discovered by Customs officers at the airport. I've finally started getting email updates from Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network. Here is one of their stories about tortoises being smuggled in luggage.note the drug connection. MORE

As well as being an early pioneer in the field of island restoration, clearing the first New Zealand Islands of rats in the 1960s, he was also part of the export of that knowledge, in particularly teaming up with the Jersey Wildlife Trust to help save Round Island in Mauritius, and helping protect critically endangered birds in the Seychelles by eliminating invasive rats. MORE

As you might remember, Bioculture—a company that supplies primates to laboratories—plans to capture monkeys from their homes in Mauritius, hold them captive in Puerto Rico, and then sell thousands of their babies for use in painful and deadly experiments around the world. Actor Benicio del Toro has written a letter to the governor of Puerto Rico opposing a new monkey breeding facility. MORE

The other African destinations in this list are quite interesting too (Mauritius, Comoros, Cabo Verde), perhaps all but Equatorial Guinea due to complicated logistics of visiting the Bioko Island, poor infrastructure and political instability. The Species per Square Mile Approach. MORE

Mauritius: birding some less well-known spots Pinch Me… I’m Going to Ecuador! home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birds / Spring is for Wheatears Spring is for Wheatears By Dan • March 18, 2011 • 3 comments Tweet Share What is true in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US holds true for Cyprus as well: Spring is prime-time for Passerines. MORE

The Dodo lived on Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. For much more, see The history of the Dodo Raphus cucullatus and the penguin of Mauritius (PDF). The Dodo ( Raphus cucullatus ) — that towering icon of modern anthropogenic extinctions — was a pigeon. MORE

Mauritius Night-Heron. Mauritius Owl. Passenger Pigeon. Kioea. Broad-billed Parrot. Alaotra Grebe. Saint Helena Cuckoo. Grand Cayman Thrush. Ascencion Crake. Kakawahie. What do the eight birds above have in common? They are all extinct. They all went extinct since 1500 and they are only eight of the nearly two hundred species that have blinked out since then. Of those nearly two hundred there are very few that people would recognize. MORE

The story of the flightless Dodo, discovered on the island of Mauritius in 1598 and killed off by 1700, is sad and familiar. We love our stuff, stuff being the term affectionately given to the objects with which we populate our lives. In birding, we like to think that we don’t need much ‘stuff’. Just give us binoculars, a field guide, and a hat to keep out the sun and rain. Maybe a spotting scope. And a long lens camera. Some memory cards for that camera. MORE