NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

This national museum was the very first to open its doors in Mauritius in 1842 under the impetus of the Mauritian naturalist Julien Desjardins who, on his death, gave his personal collections to the State for display to the greatest number of people. For 43 years, these collections were housed in one of the wings of the Royal College in Port Louis before being transferred to the Mauritius Institute Building, a beautiful ^19th century building inspired in large part by the Colombo Museum in Sri Lanka and featuring a superb Italianate loggia. In the heart of the city, in the immediate vicinity of the Government House and facing the Jardin de la Compagnies des Indes, the museum occupies the first floor of this historic building, classified as a national heritage site. Closed for several years, it has been renovated without becoming a place not to be missed. It presents a collection of specimens of the fauna and flora of the Mascarene Islands, including some extinct species such as the dodo or dodo, the first "inhabitant" of the island and current icon of Mauritius. With its hooked beak and its atrophied wings, it is an abnormal member of the pigeon family which disappeared in the 17th century^. One of the very few existing skeletons is exposed here. It is, so to speak, the highlight of the visit. Also to be discovered: a collection of stuffed birds, fish, butterflies, amphibians and reptiles, geological pieces (stones, rocks, fossils...) and documents on the natural history of the Mascarenes.