Mauritius pink pigeon
www.mauritian-wildlife.org
www.jerseyzoo.co.uk

We have been a major supporter of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and their conservation activities with pink pigeons both in Mauritius and Jersey.

In 1999, the Bank entered into a five-year sponsorship arrangement with DWCT which enabled the Trust to purchase an invaluable 4x4 jeep, allowing field workers in Mauritius with to travel through inhospitable terrain to conduct their intensive activities saving the pink pigeon from extinction.

When Gerald Durrell visited Mauritius in 1976, the wild population of one of the rarest birds in the world numbered less than 20 pigeons. Through captive breeding programmes by the DWCT in Jersey and its in-country partner, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, there are now thought to be over 420 birds flying free in the forests of Mauritius.

John Hartley, International Programme Director at the DWCT said, "Deutsche Bank Offshore's long-term commitment to the pink pigeon will enable MWF and our government colleagues at the National Parks and Conservation Service to expand the wild population into a new area of forest within the Black River Gorges National Park. Without their financial support none of this would have been possible and the pink pigeon might have suffered the same fate as the dodo".