<P> Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues were also once each home to one or more species of giant tortoises, now extinct, which comprised the genus Cylindraspis . There are thirteen living endemic reptile species, including a number of species of day geckoes (genus Phelsuma). </P> <P> The islands have no native mammals, except for bats such as the Mauritian flying fox . </P> <P> Today Mauritius has one of the highest population densities in the world and on all of the islands, there has been a great loss of habitat and many of the surviving endemic species are still threatened with extinction with little protection . Less than 40 percent of Réunion is covered with natural vegetation, only about 5 percent of Mauritius, and almost none of Rodrigues . On Réunion, forest has been cleared for agriculture and then overtaken by introduced plants . Mauritius was largely converted to sugar cane, tea, and conifer plantations . On Rodrigues the damage has been done by shifting cultivation . </P> <P> The early colonial history of the islands, like that of the Caribbean, is a confusing story of takeovers between the rival Portuguese, Dutch, French and British colonizers, usually separate or in varying combinations, sometimes even with distant other colonies, e.g. in the East Indies . </P>

How were the mascarene islands affected by clearing large areas of land
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