GA4

Friday, December 16, 2005

MAURITIUS KESTRELS - Mauritius highway plans shelved

Superb news from Birdlife International. The planned Mauritius South-Eastern Highway has been cancelled. The building of this road would have devastated the habitat of the Mauritius Kestrel.
In an important victory for conservation, plans for a road that would have devastated part of the forest heartland of the Mauritius Kestrel Falco punctatus, one of the world’s flagship conservation success stories, have been shelved.

The historic decision was announced in October following national elections when the Prime Minister of Mauritius was elected with promises to change the country within 100 days.
[...]
Numbering just four wild birds in 1974, the Mauritius Kestrel was once the world’s rarest bird. Today its population has grown to between 800 and 1,000 individuals, thanks to a captive breeding and reintroduction programme run by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and the Government of Mauritius

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The article mentioned there were just four known wild birds in 1974. Do you know how many captive birds there were? In other words, what was the lowest the population got, and now that it's back up, do you know if the birds have experienced any problems with inbreeding?
Ocellated