Round Island Ecosystem Restoration — Invasive Mammal Eradication (Mauritius)

Round Island is a 219-hectare volcanic islet 22.5 km off the northeast coast of Mauritius, designated a nature reserve in 1957. For over 150 years, goats and rabbits introduced by sailors devastated its native palm forest, stripping vegetation and causing severe soil erosion that threatened the island's unique reptile fauna - species that had already been wiped out on the Mauritian mainland by introduced predators.

From 1976, the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust (now Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust) worked with Mauritius's National Parks and Conservation Service and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation to remove the invasive herbivores: goats were eradicated by 1979 and rabbits by 1986, using a targeted poisoning campaign led by conservationist Don Merton. A permanent research station, opened in 2002, has since supported ongoing native forest restoration and weed control.

Multiple peer-reviewed studies documented the ecological response: six reptile species recovered, including Telfair's skink, Guenther's gecko and the Round Island keel-scaled boa, alongside a rebound of four endemic palm species, among them the critically rare bottle palm. The island remains the only Indian Ocean nesting site for the Round Island petrel and is recognised as the most intact reptile-dominated ecosystem in the Mascarenes. Marking its 50th year of active management in 2025, no equivalent quantified erosion or soil-recovery dataset has yet been published, so those co-benefits remain qualitative.

Read more: https://www.mauritian-wildlife.org/news/2025-05-09/conservation-jewels-no-4--round-island--50-years-of-conservation-success

Read the full analysis: https://www.mauritian-wildlife.org/news/2025-05-09/conservation-jewels-no-4--round-island--50-years-of-conservation-success