Island Extinctions, Rodrigues

"The Rodriguez Day Gecko was a brightly coloured lizard, 22cm (9in) long. . . Most of the early colonists and visitors commented on it and its habit of clinging to the branches of Latania palms. . . The last specimen ever seen was taken by M. Etienne Theroux from an islet in 1917 and extensive searches of all the satellites in 1963, 1967 and 1974 have been in vain."

"It was massive for its genus, measuring up to 54 cm (21 in.) in overall length and with a girth of 20 cm (8 in.) or more. . . . It was only known from Rodriguez and one islet .4km (.25mi) offshore. . . Francois Lienard had five specimens sent to him from the Ile aux Fregates in 1841. . . [his] Geckos were the last ones ever recorded and the Isle aux Fregates now swarms with rats."

"Canon Pingré, a Mascarene priest, was on Rodriguez in 1761 and wrote: 'In the three and a half months I have spent on this island, we ate practically nothing else: tortoise soup, fricassée of tortoise, tortoise casserole, tortoise mince balls, tortoise eggs, tortoise liver...[as well as the famous dish of dried tortoise tripe] . . . These were almost our only dishes; the meat seemed to me as good on the last day as on the first . . ."