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Rodrigues Island, Mauritius: Rodrigues Environmental Education Project

Conservation at a Glance

• Critically endangered Rodrigues fruit bats are found only on the tiny island of Rodrigues in the southwestern Indian Ocean, off the cost of Madagascar.
• Once abundant, bat numbers were decimated by habitat destruction, cyclones, and hunting so that by the early 1970’s, there were less than 100 bats remaining.
• In 1976 and 1979, as a hedge against extinction in the wild, 27 bats were collected to found a captive breeding program; there are now over 500 bats in zoos worldwide.
• Thanks to conservation efforts on Rodrigues, the bat numbers have rebounded to around 5000 today.
• To encourage and support this positive environmental trend on Rodrigues, in 1998, the Philadelphia Zoo created and funded the first environmental educator on Rodrigues.
• Since 1998, the educator has been working with local community groups, schools, NGO’s, government agencies, and international partners to encourage and support Rodrigues’ unique plants and animals.
• Projects range from classroom presentations and field trips to beach and creek clean-ups, to tree plantings and workshops on waste management, to bat monitoring and annual environmental festivals.
• The Rodrigues Environmental Educator Project is supported by a consortium of U.S. zoos, bat conservation organizations, and private donors led by the Philadelphia Zoo.