Bats, Monkeys And Turtles Of GRSE
The Real Wildlife At Grand River South East
Grand River South East (GRSE), on Mauritius’s east coast, has no crocodiles, no big cats and no savanna game drives, whatever a generic “river wildlife” listicle might have told you. What it does have is a shortlist of animals worth building a morning around, several of which live nowhere else on the planet.
Mauritian flying foxes The GRSE river gorge is one of the best places on the island to see colonies of Pteropus niger, Mauritius’s only native mammal, a large golden-brown fruit bat with a wingspan up to a meter. They roost in cliffside trees above the river and glide out over the gorge in the late afternoon as the light drops, which is the best time to be on the water watching for them. Give the roosts space, skip the air horn and the engine revving, and they’ll put on the show themselves.
Crab-eating macaques Troops of long-tailed macaques work the basalt ledges and overhanging branches along the river, foraging in a way that’s genuinely interesting to watch if you leave them to it. Boat crews sometimes throw crisps or bread to draw them closer for photos; that’s exactly what not to do. It teaches a wild troop to associate boats with food, and habituated macaques get bold fast. Watch, don’t feed.
Reef life in the lagoon The protected stretch of lagoon between GRSE and Île aux Cerfs is shallow enough for snorkeling straight off a boat, with coral heads holding Moorish idols, parrotfish, butterflyfish, trumpetfish and green sea turtles grazing on seagrass. None of it requires a dive certification; a mask and fins get you all of it.
Giant tortoises, a short trip away For the animal encounter GRSE itself doesn’t have, free-roaming giant Aldabra tortoises and endemic Telfair’s skinks live on Île aux Aigrettes, a predator-free coral island reserve managed by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, reachable as a day excursion from this stretch of coast. It’s the trade-off for GRSE staying wild and undeveloped: the big charismatic reptiles live on a dedicated sanctuary island rather than roaming the riverbank.
The verdict: skip anything that promises crocodiles, game drives or night safaris here; that’s a different continent’s wildlife list. The flying foxes alone are worth timing a boat trip around, since they’re endemic and increasingly rare.
One concrete tip: the fruit bats are most active in the hour before sunset, so if wildlife is the actual point of your GRSE boat trip rather than an afterthought, book the late-afternoon slot, not the mid-morning one everyone else takes.
Curious what else lives along that same gorge? Attraction tours at Grand River South East covers the waterfall canyon tour where most of this wildlife gets spotted.