Mauritius, Land of the Dodo Trivia Quiz

Answer: Indian Ocean Island Games

Mauritius lies in the Indian Ocean some 1200 miles (2000 km) off the coast of Africa, and about 686 miles (1104 km) from the island of Madagascar.

Mauritius hosted the second and fifth Indian Ocean Island Games in 1985 and 2003. Participating countries include Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mayotte, Reunion, and the Seychelles. The Games included everything from track and field to rugby union to sailing to taekwondo to basketball!

Answer: None

Like the United States, there is no official language designated by the Constitution of Mauritius, although English is spoken in administration, the courts, and business. English is official only in Parliament, where French is also acceptable. French is also often spoken in the workplace.

The vernacular is Kreol morisyen (Mauritian creole). The reasons for the linguistic hodge-podge are historical. Mauritius was visited by the Portuguese, and then settled and subsequently abandoned by the Dutch. The French turned Mauritius into a plantation colony, and the French spoken by slaves became Kreol.

Then the English seized Mauritius during the Napoleonic Wars, but never really settled there, though they did import foreign labor (Indian, Malay, and Chinese) to work the land.

Answer: Rupee

The rupee has been the currency of Mauritius since 1876 because of the large Indian immigration to Mauritius at the time. When the British took over Mauritius, they brought some 8,740 Indian soldiers to live on the island, and many indentured laborers worked in the sugar cane fields. (Slavery had been abolished in 1835). The Mauritian rupee replaced the Mauritian dollar, British pound sterling, Indian rupee, and other currencies used up to that point.

Answer: True

The Aapravasia Ghat in Port Louis comprises the dockside buildings that served for reception and registration of indentured laborers arriving from Malaysia, China, Madagascar, but mostly from India. Britain had decided to make Mauritius the center of an experiment in "free" labor (although they were bound by contract) as opposed to chattel slave labor. About half a million Indians were processed through Aapravasi Ghat and sent to the sugar cane plantations of Mauritius or of other islands such as nearby Reunion, not to mention Australia, Africa, and even the Caribbean. Tourists may view a restored shed that housed the laborers, the officers' quarters, and the hospital.

Answer: Mauritius has exploitable oil and natural gas resources.

Mauritius indeed was volcanic. The mountain ranges form a ring which suggests that one time they all belonged to one big volcano, now extinct. The terrain is primarily coastal plain that rises to lava-formed mountains encircling a central plateau, which slopes downward toward the north and east.

As on many other tropical islands, the summers are hot and wet and the winters are warm and dry (thanks to trade winds). Fast-flowing streams and rivers have cut deeply through the volcanic landscape from the central plateau and have formed such scenic waterfalls as the Chamarel Falls, a set of three cascades in the southeast that are the tallest on the island.

The only natural commodities of note are agriculture (sugarcane, tea, corn, potatoes, bananas), horticulture (cut flowers), livestock (cattle and goats), and fish. Petroleum must be imported.

Answer: The Seven-Coloured Earths

The Seven-Coloured Earths are a spectacular sight. Seven different colors of sand (red, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and brown) settle into layered stripes spontaneously, like rainbow sherbet. The hot, humid climate encourages volcanic rock (basalt) to decompose into clay, which through chemical weathering loses most of the silica and is left with aluminum (blue/violet) and iron (reddish). The different shades come from molten rock cooling at different rates, but the spontaneous stratification remains a mystery. Also puzzling is how the dunes never erode away, despite torrential rains.

The Red Beach is in China, the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, and Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, USA.

Answer: Desert

Most of the rainforest and palm savannas (grasslands with widely spaced trees) of the island are gone, as are the heathlands (shrubs and wildflowers in marshy, acidic soil). Invasive plant species and plantation farming have destroyed most of the native vegetation; only about 2% of these areas remain. There are, however, white sandy beaches and lagoons protected by coral reef surrounding Mauritius, though the reef has experienced some degradation.

Nearby islets serve now as nature reserves, and most of the remaining rainforest and heathlands on the main island are found in the Black River Gorges National Park near Chamarel village. The Mauritian flying fox (a fruit bat) and all the native birds reside there.

Answer: Crab-eating macaques (monkeys)

Before the Portuguese arrived in the 1500s, no mammals lived on Mauritius, only birds, reptiles, fish, and crustaceans. Unfortunately, human beings have introduced non-native species that have upset the balance of nature on the island. Since then, invading crab-eating macaques and wild pigs have become widespread. The common myna, one of the most conspicuous birds on the island and one of world's most invasive creatures, was meant to eat sugar-cane locusts, but ignoring the insects, it favored the geckos and skinks, much easier to catch.

The pink pigeon (not to mention the Mauritian kestrel, parakeet, and bulbul) nearly became extinct, but the National Parks and Conservation Service successfully revived the species. Ornate day and other geckos mainly live in Round Island, an islet just north of the main island. Crayfish and shrimp remain plentiful in the rivers.

Answer: Boucle d'oreille

Upon becoming a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations in 1992, Mauritius proclaimed its national flower to be the boucle d'oreille. Known scientifically as Trochetia boutoniana, this endemic plant bears reddish-orange flowers from June to October and can grow up to 9 feet tall (3m). Once widespread, it is now confined to the slopes of Le Morne Brabant because the macaques introduced to the island consume its buds.

Bougainvillea and "Chinese" or strawberry guava are invasive species from Brazil. Tulips are not generally found, despite Dutch colonization!

Answer: Dodo

Portuguese explorers discovered dodos when they landed on Mauritius in 1505. Living in isolation and knowing no predators, the birds were not afraid of human beings. Hungry sailors eagerly killed the placid 50-pound dodos for food. When the Dutch made Mauritius a penal colony, they introduced rats, pigs, and monkeys, which ate the dodos' eggs. The last dodo died in 1681.

On the coat of arms stands a red and white dodo as a supporter on the dexter (right) side of the escutcheon (shield). On the other side stands a sambar deer, an introduced deer found throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Mauritius adopted the coat of arms in 1906 while it was still a British protectorate.