Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons

Mauritius, a green and mountainous island in the Indian Ocean, was once the home of the ill-fated dodo. By the 1970s it still had many unique but seriously endangered species. To rescue some of these creatures from extinction, Gerald Durrell spent uncomfortable nights in the jungle looking for bats and pink pigeons, climbed near-vertical rock faces to find Telfair's skinks and Gunther's geckos, and spent his spare time among the coral reefs with their varied multicoloured marine life. By the end of his trip, Durrell had an extraordinary collection of animals to take to his Jersey sanctuary from where the progeny could, in time, be restored to Mauritius.