Nature History Museum and Mauritius Institute

Most tourists visit the Museum and Institute, on Chausee St, to see the stuffed replica of the dodo, the abnormal member of a group of pigeons, which become extinct. Between 1981 and 1989, the dodo exhibits underwent extensive repairs at the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The most pristine exhibit was returned to the institute in Mauritius three years later. The dodo is the centrepiece, but there are stuffed representations of other extinct birds such as the Seychelles Dutch pigeon, the Bourbon crested starling, broad-billed and Mascarene parrots and the solitaire. The stuffing extends to specimens of other birds animals and fish that are still with us. If you want to read more about Mauritius there is a library upstairs at the back of the building. Sometimes the Institute, formerly the offices of the French East Indian Company, play host to a commercial or artistic exhibition. The Institute (tell: 2120639) is open on weekdays except Wednesday from 9am to 4pm and on weekends from 9am to noon, admission is free.