News
Through our collaboration with Air Mauritius and its One Take-off, One Tree programme, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation ensures that an endemic or native tree is planted in either Mauritius or Rodrigues each time an Air Mauritius aircraft takes off from Mauritius. More than 89 000 trees have been planted over the past decade under this programme.
These newly planted trees will eventually densify forests and provide home for a variety of wildlife species. Today, we wish to let you know more about the Rodrigues Warbler (Acrocephalus rodericanus), one of the two remaining endemic rodriguan land birds’ species which will benefit from this habitat restoration.
This little passerine grows to 12 centimetres long when adult, the upper parts of its body are uniformly brown-olive and the lower parts are lighter, yellowish-tan. The bird is also recognisable by its long beak and its pink lower mandible. The bird also has a few particular features, like being able to move its tail from top to bottom (like many other warblers) and having a very melodious song.
The Rodrigues warbler is a territorial insectivore adapted to dense thickets of native vegetation and remaining secondary forests of the island. It diet consists mainly of insects and a range of invertebrates.
Once very common in Rodrigues, the Rodrigues Warbler population declined steadily until 1979 when only eight pairs were reported. The species was even briefly thought extinct at some point. The main threats being predation from invasive alien species like rats and cats, as well as habitat destruction and climatic hazards.
With the conservations efforts carried out by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and its partners in Rodrigues – through restoration of the habitat - the Rodrigues Warbler population has considerably increased to reach more than 25 000 individuals nowadays.
