François Leguat Giant Tortoise and Cave Reserve

It is named after the 18th century Huguenot settler François Leguat, who recorded much of the island's natural flora and fauna before it went extinct.

[2] By early accounts, the tall Cylindraspis vosmaeri in particular was a social animal that lived and interacted in herds, and showed no fear of humans.

Occasional individual tortoises are recorded as being found surviving in isolated valleys of the island until as late as 1802.

They do not seem to have survived the ensuing period though, when settlers used vast fires to clear the entire island of vegetation, to access it for agriculture.

Their movements and grazing rejuvenated the vegetation, and the seeds of many plants needed the tortoises for dispersal and germination.