Lost Land of the Dodo

The Mascarene islands in the southern Indian Ocean - Mauritius, Réunionand Rodrigues - were once home to an extraordinary range of birds andreptiles. Evolving on these isolated volcanic islands in the absence ofmammalian predators or competitors, the land was dominated by gianttortoises, parrots, skinks and geckos, burrowing boas, flightless rails& herons, and of course (in Mauritius) the Dodo. Uninhabited andonly discovered in the 1500s, colonisation by European settlers in the1600s led to dramatic changes in the ecology of the islands; the birdsand tortoises were slaughtered indiscriminately while introduced rats,cats, pigs and monkeys destroyed their eggs, the once-extensive forestslogged, and invasive introduced plants from all over the tropicsdevastated the ecosystem. The now-familiar icon of extinction, theDodo, was gone from Mauritius within 50 years of human settlement, andover the next 150 years many of the Mascarenes' other nativevertebrates followed suit.Theproduct of over 30 years research by Anthony Cheke, Lost Land of theDodo provides a comprehensive yet hugely enjoyable account of the storyof the islands' changing ecology, interspersed with human stories, theislands' biogeographical anomalies, and much else. Many Frenchpublications, old and new, especially for Réunion, are discussed andreferenced in English for the first time. The book is richlyillustrated with maps and contemporary illustrations of the animals andtheir environment, many of which have rarely been reprinted before.Illustrated box texts look in detail at each extinct vertebratespecies, while Julian Hume's superb colour plates bring many of theextinct birds to life. Lost Land of the Dodo provides the definitiveaccount of this tragic yet remarkable fauna, and is a must-read foranyone interested in islands, their ecology and the history of ourrelationship with the world around us.