Ile Aux Aigrettes, Mauritius
To go with feature "Mauritian wildlife turns clock back 400 years".
Ashok Khadun, from the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, shows a baby to an Aldabran giant tortoise on Mauritius' Ile Aux Aigrettes, a small, wooded island less than one kilometre (0.6 miles) from the Mauritian mainland's southern coast March 8, 2007. Mauritius evolved without humans, and the arrival of the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British from the 16th century onwards was a disaster for wildlife including the world?s most famous flightless bird, the dodo, and other animals. Mauritius did once have two species of its own giant tortoises, but the gentle beasts on Ile Aux Aigrettes, weighing an average 200 to 250 kilograms, are from the Seychellois island of Aldabra. Picture taken Marcn 8, 2007. REUTERS/Ed Harris (MAURITIUS)