Lost Land of the Dodo

The Mascarene islands in the southern Indian Ocean - Mauritius, Réunion

and Rodrigues - were once home to an extraordinary range of birds and

reptiles. Evolving on these isolated volcanic islands in the absence of

mammalian predators or competitors, the land was dominated by giant

tortoises, parrots, skinks and geckos, burrowing boas, flightless rails

& herons, and of course (in Mauritius) the Dodo. Uninhabited and

only discovered in the 1500s, colonisation by European settlers in the

1600s led to dramatic changes in the ecology of the islands; the birds

and tortoises were slaughtered indiscriminately while introduced rats,

cats, pigs and monkeys destroyed their eggs, the once-extensive forests

logged, and invasive introduced plants from all over the tropics

devastated the ecosystem. The now-familiar icon of extinction, the

Dodo, was gone from Mauritius within 50 years of human settlement, and

over the next 150 years many of the Mascarenes" other native

vertebrates followed suit.The

product of over 30 years research by Anthony Cheke, Lost Land of the

Dodo provides a comprehensive yet hugely enjoyable account of the story

of the islands" changing ecology, interspersed with human stories, the

islands" biogeographical anomalies, and much else. Many French

publications, old and new, especially for Réunion, are discussed and

referenced in English for the first time. The book is richly

illustrated with maps and contemporary illustrations of the animals and

their environment, many of which have rarely been reprinted before.

Illustrated box texts look in detail at each extinct vertebrate

species, while Julian Hume"s superb colour plates bring many of the

extinct birds to life. Lost Land of the Dodo provides the definitive

account of this tragic yet remarkable fauna, and is a must-read for

anyone interested in islands, their ecology and the history of our

relationship with the world around us.