News Room

HSBC in Mauritius has just finished supporting a very successful, three-year recovery programme for the Mauritius Fody on Ile aux Aigrettes.

The approximately 6,500 hectare (16,200 acre) Black River Gorges National Park, in the southwest corner of Mauritus, had become the only place in the world in which the Mauritius Fody lived in the wild. Between 1974 and 2003, the numbers declined from 260 pairs to only 93 pairs. This alarming decline prompted the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation to initiate the recovery programme in 2003, and HSBC has been the main supporter.

Ile aux Aigrettes, an island off the southeast coast of Mauritius, was chosen as the ideal spot for the Mauritius Fody recovery plan as it does not have any natural predators of the bird. Throughout the three-year programme, the recovery team has worked closely with the Gerald Durrell Endemic Wildlife Sanctuary, in the Black River Gorges area. They have monitored breeding attempts, rescued at-risk nests, hand reared eggs and chicks, and released 56 birds onto the Ile aux Aigrettes. Today there are more than 130 birds on the island and there is a long term management plan in place to protect the birds and their habitat.