The François Leguat Giant Tortoise Reserve is located in the southern part of Rodrigues. The reserve is a conservation project that was started by Owen Griffiths a zoologist whose dream was to recreate the fauna and flora as it was when the first settlers arrived in Rodrigues. So as to re-create the fauna more than 110,000 endemic and native plants have been planted in the reserve up to now. The giant tortoises that were exploited for their meat and oil by the sailors and thus became extinct have also been re-introduced to the reserve and they can now be seen on your visit there