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Friends of Mauritian Wildlife : Le Pouce Mountain Hike
On Sunday 26 November, the Friends of Mauritian Wildlife organised its last hike of 2023 to the top of Le Pouce mountain in St Pierre. Led by Lensley Etiennette (Friends Coordinator) and Giani Abajee (Flora Conservation Biologist), 15 club members enjoyed this 4-hour leisure hike, with some thin rain pouring from time to time to cool this early summer expedition.
As with a few other mountains in Mauritius, Le Pouce is home to some endemic and native plant species. Along the path, hikers came across the Pittosporum senacia (bois carotte), the Erythrospermum monticolum (bois manioc) and the Roussea simplex (lianne Rousseau). The mountain also shelters the very rare and beautiful Pandanus pseudomontanus. As they embarked on the hardest part of the hike, our Friends members also caught sight of the amazing silver colours of one of few plant species commonly called Immortel that we can see on Le Pouce mountains, before enjoying the breath-taking view from the peak of the mountain.
As the Great Southern BioBlitz (GSB) competition was also held over this period, the participants made the best use of the outing and time with our biologist to get pictures of native and endemic plants for the competition. The GSB competition is a worldwide citizen science event that aims to document the biodiversity of the Southern Hemisphere using the iNaturalist app and website. This event is held annually in late November; anyone can participate by joining a local project and uploading pictures of wild plants and animals to the iNaturalist app over a specific upload period for the competing submissions. This year also marked the first participation of Mauritius in the event.
If you want to be part of the next discovery hike or our other Friends activities, please get in touch with us. The Friends of the Mauritian Wildlife club regroups nature and environment lovers and aims to foster interest in all aspects of conservation.
For more information visit: https://www.mauritian-wildlife.org/friendsofmwf
