Isobel Shepherd-Smith has a nice article on The Times website about the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and how it has been working to bring back native creatures from the brink of extinction. The article ticks many of the Last Chance To See boxes with mentions of Carl Jones, Dodos, Mauritius Kestrels, Pink Pigeons, Echo Parakeets, Gerald Durrell, Round Island, and Rodrigues.

In the Seventies the kestrel, the only raptor on the island, was one of the rarest birds in the world – only four lived in the wild. Today there are more than 800.

In 1980 the number of pink pigeons barely made double figures; 27 years later there were 380. In the 1980s the emerald green echo parakeet numbered little more than a dozen; now there are well over 300.
[...]
“At the start of this conservation work in the 1970s the future of the endemic species in Mauritius and Rodrigues seemed bleak and many thought that few could be saved from extinction. Thirty years later the long-term conservation of all the Mascarene [Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues] endemics is within our grasp.”

**LAST CHANCE REMINDER**
I'm giving away a second-hand hardback 1977 edition (ex-library copy) of Gerald Durrell's book "Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons". It's a very entertaining account of Durrell's trip to Mauritius, Round Island and Rodrigues to capture various creatures for his captive breeding programs. The book has a little water damage stain, but other than that, it's in very good reading condition, and is full of many nice illustrations and a section of black & white photographic plates.

If anyone would like a chance to read it now that I'm done with it, please simply enter your name in this ContestMachine widget below. Or, if you know someone else who may be interested, do let them know, or just post this competition to your favorite social network(s). US readers only please. Contest closes 02/19/09 09:47 PM

I'm giving away a second-hand hardback 1977 edition (ex-library copy) of Gerald Durrell's book "Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons". It's a very entertaining account of Durrell's trip to Mauritius, Round Island and Rodrigues to capture various creatures for his captive breeding programs. The book has a little water damage stain, but other than that, it's in very good reading condition, and is full of many nice illustrations and a section of black & white photographic plates.

If anyone would like a chance to read it now that I'm done with it, please simply enter your name in this ContestMachine widget below. Or, if you know someone else who may be interested, do let them know, or just post this competition to your favorite social network(s). I'll pick a random winner in two weeks time. US readers only please. Contest closes 02/19/09 09:47 PM

This article from the Detroit News noted the fact that Tanner, a Rodrigues Fruitbat at Cranbrook Institute in Bloomfield Hills, celebrated his 23rd birthday late last month. As they only live to be about 20 in the wild, that's great going.

"He's in good health. He's retired," Organization for Bat Conservation director Rob Mies said.
[...]
By his species' standards Tanner is a senior citizen.

Only about 4,000 of the large, fruit-eating bats still live on tiny Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean.
[...]
Tanner had been the second oldest of the 1,000 or so golden bats in captivity until a few months ago when a 23-year-old female died at Chicago's Brookfield Zoo. He's also three years older than others in captivity.

Their ages are confirmed because each of the captive bats are registered worldwide, Mies said.

The BBC Last Chance To See "Radio" page has been updated again to include the full radio episode "The Answer is Blowing in the Wind". This episode features Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine in their search for the Rodrigues Fruit Bat. The site indicates that the Kakapo episode will be the next to be made available, in January 2009.

The radio series episode guide in David Haddock's "The Story of Last Chance To See" has been updated with the link to all the episodes released so far.

NOTE: This material is only available to UK users due to copyright restrictions. Boo-hoo!

The GuardianWeekly site recently ran this interview with Vikash Tatayah, a conservationist with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. In it, he tells of his experiences with the endangered animals on the island, including the Mauritius Kestrels and Pink Pigeons.

You have to be slightly crazy to be in this business. The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation has been very successful in restoring animals, plants and forests, and people from all around the world come to volunteer on the programme every year. I oversee the conservation of Mauritius kestrels, pink pigeons (distant relatives of the Dodo), seabirds, reptiles and Mauritian fruit bats.

The Mauritius kestrel used to be the most endangered bird in the world. In 2004 there were only four kestrels known to be in the wild – now there are over 800. I’m proud to say that Mauritius and the neighbouring island of Rodrigues have saved more bird species than any other country in the world.

Rodrigues & Seba fruit bats (Pteropus Rodricensis & Carollia Perspicillata) filmed in their huge nocturnal enclosure at Chester Zoo, Cheshire, UK, October 2006 with a specially composed soundtrack featuring the No-Age Sounds of Sedayne.

Steve Wing tracks cats, saves bats and has high hopes for the Arctic. Here he talks to Paula Burba of The Courier-Journal about his work at the Louisville Zoo.

"One of my favorite programs involves the highly endangered Rodrigues fruit bat. Found only on the tiny island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, their population had dwindled to only 74 individual bats. In the mid-1980s, zoos from the U.S. and the U.K. banded together … (and) started a breeding program (with 18 bats). Today, more than 500 Rodrigues fruit bats reside in 28 zoos across the world … as education ambassadors to millions of zoo visitors. … (And now) a native Rodriguan teaches school and community groups (on the island) about conservation and provides training on reforestation and waterway cleanup. As a result, there are currently more than 2,000 bats living on the island!"

Spinal Column Online has a very nice interview with Rob Miles, the director of the Organization for Bat Conservation at the Cranbrook Institute of Science. He has worked with bats for 15 years and has done lots of work on Mauritius and Rodrigues.

Two of the main hot spots that we're working on right now are in India and a group of Islands called the Mauritius Islands in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Madagascar. Right on our web site home page [Link: www.batconservation.org/] it talks about Mauritius fruit bats. I've been there and I've done work with the Mauritius and Rodrigues (part of Mauritius) fruit bats. Both of the bats are large, beautiful fruit bats. Rodrigues bats are an endangered species found on a tiny little island. We have an education project there teaching people about the importance of bats but that we also help fund research on the islands to survey the bats. I've done that there, helping to survey the health and population of the bats. So a lot of my research has to do with surveys and then also helping to give advice on how to best protect bats.