Mauritius

Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, French: République de Maurice, is an island nation off the coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres (560 mi) east of Madagascar. The island of Mauritius is renowned for having been the only known home of the dodo. The Dodo is a lesson in extinction. First sighted around 1600 on Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, the Dodo was extinct less than eighty years later. Mauritius attained independence in 1968, and the country became a republic within the Commonwealth in 1992. Mauritius has attracted considerable foreign investment earning one of Africa's highest per capita incomes.