We really wanted to see as much Mauritian wildlife as possible during our holiday. With only a week spent in paradise, we crammed in as many opportunities as we could. Visiting Île aux Aigrettes, a coral island sanctuary, was a highlight. This nature reserve houses many rare animals and is a haven for wildlife. This post is more of a story, however, I will also include some information about booking so that you can get the most out of it.
Visiting Île aux Aigrettes
Visiting Île aux Aigrettes – Booking Information
We booked our holiday through Kuoni and this was part of the Wildlife Experience. It was not cheap and cost over £300.00 for the entire day, which also included other authentic experiences including a biscuit factory tour and a trip to Karay Mario.
The trip to the nature reserve was, without question, the highlight. If you book direct it only costs 900 MUR, which is £16.00 per person. I would personally recommend this option and bypass the travel company if you can. Our Maurtourco guide, Akshay, was really good for the day, but did not know a great deal about the island. Plus, as you have another guide from Île aux Aigrettes, he just sat there for an hour.
If you are staying in the South of the island, I would recommend getting a transfer from your hotel to the docks. You save a lot of money and the people on the island were fantastic. If possible, I would opt for the tailored tour. We had quite a large (10 people) group, but I think a smaller one would be better. It may cost more (price not on the website), but I think it would be worth it if you are visiting Île aux Aigrettes.
Arriving and the Boat Ride
We arrived at the docks early and aimed for a 10:30 departure. There was a speedboat waiting for us and, once we met our guide and group, we were transferred to the island. Our guide told us that we would be seeing lots of rare species, which included the pink pigeon.
The boat was smooth and was over within five minutes. I really enjoyed this part of the trip as you got to see the coastline of Mauritius and enjoy the tranquil blue water. We got off the boat and moved onto the island. Our guide sat us down and explained a little bit about the island. It is a nature reserve and all the animals found there were protected. We were asked to stay together and to not touch any of the animals.
I thought that the boat ride was a great experience and made me feel like a proper explorer. Setting foot on the coral island was unlike anything I have ever experienced and it was incredible. It was like something out of a pirate film and I loved it.
Birds and Conservation
The animals on Île aux Aigrettes are mostly free to roam around the island, however, there is a small population that live in cages. We saw about five flying foxes that had been battered in a storm living in a cage. They could not survive in the wild and so are housed here. Interestingly, they share their enclosure with a herd of baby tortoises. These are a species of giant tortoise from neighbouring islands as the endemic one is long extinct. Their adult relatives explore the island at their leisure, but the juveniles are housed here until they can fend for themselves. Our guide spoke about how their conservation efforts are helping to establish a tortoise population here, which can eventually be reintroduced to Mauritius.
Our guide took us around the island. She pointed out various birds that flew overhead and spoke about the work that they do there. At one point, we stopped by a bird feeder. This was a favourite spot of the fabled pink pigeon and we sat in silence awaiting it. Sadly, no pigeon, but we did get a hello from a rare Mauritian foddy. These live on the island since the red foddy, a Madagascan species, has outcompeted them in many areas.
As the tour continued we saw even more rare birds. Our guide from Maurtourco would point out pigeons on the ground and say that they were pink. I am not entirely sure whether he was correct, but seeing as he was a local I’ll take his word on it. We also saw the Mauritius olive white-eye, one of the rarest birds in Mauritius.
Tortoises
After the tour finished (almost abruptly as Akshay wanted to get to the biscuit factory – another reason to book directly!) we left the group to go to the boat. We hiked over the coral floor, which was covered in large leafcutter ants. These did not take any notice of us, but it made it difficult to walk without squashing them.
We would see a large tortoise on every turn of the path. They would slowly and casually walk past you, determined to get some lunch or a drink. The tortoises were beautiful and it was hard to believe just how big they were. Jack had two tortoises when I first met him and they were tiny in comparison. Perhaps it was because I had not seen anything like it in the wild, but I can honestly say that seeing them was a highlight of my holiday. They were just so unlike anything I have seen in the wild and were quite entertaining in their sluggish manner.
Visiting Île aux Aigrettes – Should You?
Absolutely, yes. We had a great time that was cut-short because of the tour company we were with. If we had stayed a bit longer and took more time to discover more of the wildlife, I am sure that it would have been the best part of our holiday. If I compare it to the trip around the ebony forest it offers something completely different and helped me understand a bit more about the wildlife. Visiting Île aux Aigrettes was a fantastic experience and I would encourage anyone to do the same to support the local people who work so hard to protect it.
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Thank you for reading and I hope I have inspired you with a few ideas and gave you a few reasons to visit Mauritius! If you have any questions about the items on my list or the island in general, please do get in touch in the comments below.
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Happy exploring,
Love Victoria X
